“The consensus we found is that the law is viable, can be implemented and is based on a good legal foundation,” Bill Infante, director of The Asia Foundation’s resident office in Mongolia which worked on the law with governmental agencies said in an interview.

“Although some concerns were raised that the law may not focus enough on the private sector, it is a step by step process and the public sector is a good start.”

Previous reports by the World Bank, USAID and surveys by the Asia Foundation found high rates of daily corruption in the public sector which some MPs also said must be addressed first.

“If private sector individuals or companies are involved in corrupt acts with public officials of course they are included in the law. We can’t target both at once, that is too much to tackle,” S. Oyun, MP and head of the Civil Will Party, told MonInfo Tuesday.

“However, a number of other laws must be implemented as well to coincide with the anti-corruption law, including the law on political parties and election laws,” she said. “Plus we need help to set up our agency and hope that proposed UNDP and World Bank projects will help us with this.”

“First we need to train people at the new agency before they can start working. Then it will still take time for people to learn how to do some basic things, like filing personal income and asset statements.”

Under the new law, previously classified “state secret” statements of income and assets for parliamentarians and high ranking government officials will be made public and must be filed by February 15 and will be printed in a government magazine.

Last week preliminary budget drafts for 2007 proposed MNT 582 million for the first year of the agency. Compared to other nations’ anti-corruption agencies the amount may be small, but the number is based on other Mongolian Ministries’ budgets, MP Oyun said.

Anti-corruption agency officials have yet to be nominated, but are expected soon, one source said.