Kyrgyz officials offer new measures to combat corruption

12:04, 07 июня 2022, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Baktygul OSMONALIEVA

The new law on Counteracting Corruption was initiated by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan.

As the ministry explains, the document was developed in accordance with the presidential decree on conducting an inventory of the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Officials add that the law was prepared to minimize corruption in the country.

As the head of the ministry writes in a background statement, the previous law on Combating Corruption, adopted in August 2012, due to the introduction of new institutions and approaches in the fight against corruption, has caused a lot of criticism from experts, civil society and the employees themselves.

It is noted that the current anti-corruption legislative framework is declarative in nature, does not provide mechanisms for its application in practice and consistency with other laws, and cannot fully become an effective means of combating corruption. An opinion was repeatedly voiced at the meetings of the parliamentary committee on law, order, combating crime and corruption that the state of anti-corruption legislation does not meet modern requirements.

The proposed draft law provides norms defining the authorized state bodies with the main directions of anti-corruption activities, including:

The draft law would also specify the organizational basis for the activities of the authorized body for the prevention of corruption;
Strengthening the role of consultative, advisory and interdepartmental consultative bodies on combating corruption;
Creating effective mechanisms for the organization and implementation of systemic measures to prevent corruption by conducting anti-corruption monitoring, corruption research, corruption risk assessment, anti-corruption expertise of normative legal acts (their drafts);
Introduction of anti-corruption restrictions and financial control measures, including monitoring of expenses of employees and their close relatives in order to detect the concealment of assets and compliance of expenses with the official income indicated in the tax declaration;
Formation of an anti-corruption culture;
Public participation in combating corruption.

It introduces the obligation to conduct sociological, special and scientific research on the state of corruption, its nature, scale, dynamics and trends, as well as the effectiveness of implementation of the state policy in the sphere of combating corruption, the results of which will be used in developing anti-corruption strategies, programs and action plans to combat corruption.

For the first time at the legislative level measures are envisaged to address the consequences of the corruption offence, including the annulment of normative legal acts or other decisions taken with the commission of corruption offences, the causes and conditions contributing to the commission of corruption (official) offences in criminal proceedings, joint liability for collegial action for corruption, as well as parallel financial investigation to identify criminal proceeds and apply procedures for the suspension of transactions (operations) or seizure of funds and other financial assets to ensure their confiscation and return to the state.

It is proposed to legislate the procedure of applying sanctions against legal entities involved in corruption as well as the regulation of lobbying activities.

The rules on the protection of persons who have reported corruption offenses are detailed and spelled out, which, in addition to guaranteeing security measures, provides for protection from unlawful prosecution in the service, and provision of free legal assistance.