The Code of Ethics of the Saeima was adopted in 2006, in terms of content it consists of 23 general points. It has not been revised since its adoption.
The recommendations given in the 2012 report of the Fourth Evaluation Round of the Council of Europe’s Anti-Corruption Interstate Group (GRECO) called for revising and updating the Code of Ethics of the Saeima and supplementing it with practical measures to promote MPs’ ethics and prevent corruption, but they have not yet been implemented.
On Friday, KNAB representative Anna Alyošina presented the mentioned international recommendations regarding the code of ethics for members of parliament and their implementation.
Alyoshina emphasized that the Saeima’s Mandates, Ethics and Submissions Commission has never been “sufficiently active”, it has been rather passive. It does not play a role in the implementation of the code of ethics, that is, the commission reacts to violations by deputies only in those cases when a written submission has been received from a member of parliament, explained the KNAB representative. The Commission also does not have the authority to initiate a case against any member without a specific application.
KNAB sees as a big problem that there is no possibility for a third person, including an employee of the Saeima, to approach the commission with a submission about a possible violation of the code of ethics of a deputy.
The code of ethics should be revised all the time, because it is often not clear what is actually hidden behind a certain article, said the KNAB representative.
“Progressive” MP Jana Simnovska admitted in the discussion that the revision of the Saeima’s rule of procedure and code of ethics for deputies is stuck. In her opinion, this happened because they are trying to review them too broadly, in all issues at once.
The politician emphasized that sometimes submissions about a possible violation of a deputy’s code of ethics are political revenge, which the parliament tries to avoid. Likewise, the understanding of ethics among MPs is very different, Simanovska believes.
Member of the Commission on Mandates, Ethics and Submissions, MP Edmunds Zivtiņš (LPV) expressed that the code of ethics should be improved. At the same time, according to him, if applications for violations of the code of ethics could be submitted to the commission by third parties, then the commission would receive “hundreds, thousands” of applications.