Unethical Official Behaviour Hard to Halt

A proposed law meant to curb widespread unethical and illegal conduct in government and judicial circles may spell progress but would be hard to enforce, say NBCentralAsia observers.



On February 8, members of parliament Omurbek Tekebaev and Aidarbek Kerimkulov presented legislation to regulate the behaviour of government officials and the judiciary. The proposal includes strict penalties for bribery and undisclosed gifts.



Employing relatives and accepting extravagant birthday presents from subordinates, which creates a conflict of interests, are other examples of the type of activity the new regulations would try to stamp out, says parliamentary deputy Omurbek Tekebaev.



The law would give the public the “opportunity to punish any official who violates official ethical norms”, said Tekebaev.



Just how restrictive to make the legislation is the main challenge facing its authors, says Cholpon Jakupova, director of Adilet, a legal NGO helping with the drafting. Those in top government jobs should bear the greatest accountability, she says.



Previous attempts to deal with ethics and corruption problems have been largely ineffective.



For example, an ethics decree introduced by former President Askar Akaev in 2001, making it compulsory for every government agency to have an ethics commission, was largely unsuccessful and official misbehaviour went unchecked. And hardly anyone adhered to an unofficial ban on banquets and celebrations imposed by the president in 2004.



Following the Tulip Revolution in March 2005, which resulted in Akaev’s ouster, Prime Minister Felix Kulov issued another resolution recommending that officials avoid extravagant family celebrations. This also proved to be largely ineffective.



A lack of political will is behind the government’s failure to grapple with unethical behaviour, says political scientist Zainidin Kurmanov. If the existing ethics commissions don’t start working with some degree of transparency and identify and react to ethical violations, more and more “stillborn” laws will be put forward, she says.



Kurmanov says it is hard prove an official has violated a law simply on moral grounds. In many ways such concepts are “not subject to law”, she says.



The proposed law does not have any holes legally, but will nonetheless be “difficult to introduce and enforce”, and may turn out to be just for show, said Vladimir Tolokontsev, deputy head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention.



Tursunbek Akun, who heads the Human Rights Commission affiliated with the Kyrgyz president, also says he has doubts about the new legislation. A major problem, he says, is that its opponents may simply throw it out.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)