“The very new organization which is to fight against corruption will be established soon in accordance with Mongolia’s anticorruption law, which is valid since November1, 2006,” said Chairman of Transparency International Mongolia, R. Burmaa.

“According to the law the organization will be a very high authority. But under the law the necessary criteria of the chairman and vice chairman is not enough, in particular their ethic’s criteria is not stated at all.”

The law on anticorruption states that the chairman and vice chairman of the anticorruption authority must not have been previously convicted of any crimes, or received disciplinary action while they were working in a state organization. Also they should hold at least a bachelors degree, have the necessary skills for the work, must have worked more than 15 years in a state organization, be over the age of 55, be a specialist of law and have some experience as a leader of professional work and should not have held a political post within the last five years.

“Transparency International Mongolia and the National Soyombo Movement consider that the law does not address the ethic’s issues of the chairman and vice chairman of the anticorruption authority. We are conducting an opinion poll from citizens concerning the chairman and vice chairman and that they should support introducing criteria on ethics,” Burmaa said.

At the opinion poll and under those organizations’ appeal to the state leaders the chairman and vice chairman of the new organization should support the following ethics criteria:

Officers’ personal biographies must be true; the educational documents should be examined, their previous work’s results should be received and analyzed by the people, did they give their income information as public information, they must openly give the information of individual and families’ income and properties to people, do they have any loan or debt from banks and non-banking organizations, if they have a loan they should inform the cause of the loan, were they dismissed or not from a post in a state organization from receiving disciplinary action and if they were receiving disciplinary action should inform clearly about it.

“We are making these appeals to Parliament, the President and the public. We are collecting public opinion through voting forms, e mail, SMS phone messages, fax and by post to Transparency International Mongolia. Our organization is the representative organization of Transparency International and we are working for the anticorruption law and related issues following international experiences of other country’s,” Burmaa told MonInfo.

Transparency International Mongolia and the National Soyombo Movement are organizing a live discussion on Mongolian National Public Television on Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. regarding the appointment and the process of establishing the anticorruption organizations and how open the appointment process should be. 

Mongolian parliament approved the anticorruption law on July, 2006 but is only now discussing the size and budget for the agency’s first year. According to one standing committee proposal the organization should consist of about 90 posts and be similar to a government ministry.

However possible candidates for the chairman and vice chairman positions have yet to be formally discussed within parliament or cabinet meetings.

“As for the citizens of Mongolia they should know how to appoint a high, responsible chairman with the highest authority. If this organization is run by a similar high ranking political figure, it will only protect people who produce corruption,” Burmaa said.