The Senate at the 41st plenary session on Thursday passed the Conflict of Interest Bill, the press service of the Senate said.

The speakers at the meeting said that despite the reforms in the field of combating corruption, problems persisted in some areas. In particular, a number of regulations contained provisions on conflict of interest, but there were no clear mechanisms for their implementation and oversight in state bodies and institutions.

The Combating Corruption Law " establishes that employees of state bodies who have violated the provisions for preventing or eliminating conflicts of interest, as well as their management officials, shall be liable in accordance with the law, but legislative acts do not provide for liability measures.

In this area, there is also no authorized body that forms a single practice. There is no established practice for reporting conflicts of interest.

The Conflict of Interest Bill eliminates these problems and is aimed at regulating relations in the field of conflict of interest that give rise to corruption situations.

Details

The Bill defines the concept of conflict of interest, the duties of civil servants, as well as specific mechanisms for its regulation.

The Bill if approved by the president shall apply to state bodies and local government bodies, state institutions, state unitary enterprises, state trust funds, as well as legal entities in the authorized capital of which the share of state bodies or other organizations is 50% or more.

It also stipulated that close relatives of an employee of a government agency or other organization, a legal entity, shares of the authorized capital of which are owned by an employee of a government agency or other organization and (or) his close relatives, are deemed as related persons of an employee of a government organization.

The Anti-Corruption Agency, commissions on the ethics of state organizations, personnel departments and internal anti-corruption control departments are defined as bodies that regulate relations related to a conflict of interest.

The Bill will establish the provisions for prevention of conflicts of interest in relation to employees of a state organization, the legal consequences of violation of the conflict of interest requirements, the grounds for invalidating transactions with the assumption of a conflict of interest, the measures of responsibility for the assumption of a conflict of interest.

For non-disclosure of a conflict of interest, a fine is set for civil servants in the amount of 3 to 5 basic settlement units (BSU=300,000 soums, or 30 USD), and for officials who do not address these situations - from 5 to 10 BSUs.

Information about a conflict of interest will have to be declared.