site.btaParliament Establishes New Anti-Corruption Commission, Members to Be Elected Within One Month

Parliament on Friday adopted conclusively an Act on Counteracting Corruption among Persons Holding Public Office, which establishes a new Anti-Corruption Commission. The Commission’s members are to be elected within one month of the Act’s entry into force. 

One member will be elected by the National Assembly, one will be appointed by the President, and one member each will be elected by the Supreme Court of Cassation, the Supreme Administrative Court and the Supreme Bar Council.

The Anti-Corruption Commission Chair will be determined by lot from among the elected and appointed members. The Chair and the members of the Commission will take office simultaneously on the date on which the Commission’s composition is completed. If any of the competent authorities fails to elect or appoint a member from its quota, the Commission will be constituted provided that no fewer than three members have been elected or appointed.

For up to three months after the new Commission takes office, activities related to countering, detecting, investigating and preventing corruption offences, analysing asset and interest declarations of persons holding public office, and establishing conflicts of interest involving such persons will continue to be carried out under the existing procedure by the competent authorities.

After that period expires, the existing civil-service relationships of the civil servants at the Corruption Prevention Directorate, the Public Register Directorate and the Conflict of Interest Directorate at the National Audit Office will not be terminated. Instead, they will be transferred into civil-service relationships at the Commission under the Civil Servants Act.

Until independent operational-search units are set up within the Commission, the Ministry of Interior will carry out operational-search activities under the Civil Servants Act and under the Ministry of Interior Act.

Within six months of the establishment of independent operational-search units at the Commission, the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime will transfer to the Commission all active operational case files handled by the Directorate and related to countering corruption.

Within two months of the Commission taking office, all automated and non-automated information databases created, maintained and used by the National Audit Office will be transferred to the Commission. The Commission will build the unified electronic declaration system within 18 months of the entry into force of the present Act on Counteracting Corruption among Persons Holding Public Office.

On January 28, the 51st National Assembly passed amendments to the National Audit Office Act, which closed the previous Anti-Corruption Commission and transferred its functions to the Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and to the National Audit Office.