Estonia | Laws do not allow preventing corruption in local governments

The Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, addressed the Constitutional Committee of the Riigikogu to initiate changing the laws that in their current wording do not allow sufficiently preventing or restraining corruption in cities and rural municipalities.

It is not a matter of individual cases and thus amending the laws as follows should be considered:

• create a regulation that ensures the recovery of material damage caused by the intentional offence of a local government’s official;
  
  
• rule out any kind of work relationship between the local government and a person who has been charged with an intentional offence at the time when the penalty is valid;
  
  
• create legal clarity in a situation where a council member of a local government works as a head of an institution managed by the local government or is a board or council member of such a company where the local government has a share and needs to supervise as a member of the local government’s council;
  
  
• specify authorisation norms, under which the official travel and other personal rights of the members of the city and rural municipality are regulated;
  
  
• establish requirements for independent auditing for local governments.

Source: Office of the Chancellor of Justice, Estonia