“Society for Openness – Delna” association and the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) urge the Saeima to review and update the parliament’s Code of Ethics.
The Saeima adopted the Code of Ethics in 2006. It consists of 23 general points. It has not been revised once since its adoption.
In the report of the Fourth Assessment Round of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in 2012, the recommendations called for revising and updating the Code of Ethics of the Saeima and supplementing it with practical measures to promote the ethics of deputies and prevent corruption,
but they have not yet been implemented.
KNAB representative Anna Aļošina on Friday presented the said international recommendations regarding the Code of Ethics and its implementation.
Aļošina emphasized that the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee of the Saeima has never been “active enough”, it has been rather passive. It does not play a role in the implementation of the Code of Ethics, i.e. the commission reacts to the violations of deputies only in cases where a written application has been received from a parliamentarian, the representative of the KNAB explained. The committee also does not have the power to bring a case against a member without a specific application.
Both KNAB and Delna said one of the biggest problems is that there is no way for a third party, Saeima workers included, to turn to the committee with an application detailing a possible violation of the Code of Ethics by a Saeima deputy.
The Code of Ethics should be reviewed at all times, as it is often unclear what is really behind a certain article, said the spokeswoman for the KNAB.
“Progressive” member Jana Simnovska admitted in the discussion that the review of the Saeima Rules of Order and the Code of Ethics is stuck. In her opinion, this happened because they are trying to review them too broadly, all issues at once.
The politician emphasized that sometimes submissions about a possible violation of a member’s Code of Ethics are acts of political reprisal, which the parliament tries to avoid. Similarly, the perception of ethics among Saeima deputies varies drastically, according to Simanovska.
Edmunds Zivtiņš, member of the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Commission, said that the Code of Ethics should be improved. At the same time, in his opinion, if applications for violation of the Code of Ethics could be submitted to the committee by third parties, then
the committee would receive “hundreds, thousands” of applications.