Ulaanbaatar
Justice minister submits bill regarding offshore accounts to Parliament
PoliticsUlaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Draft law on adjustment of personal interests in government and public service, to ban offshore properties for high-ranking government officials was presented to the Parliament on October 7.
The bill was handed over to the Speaker, Mr M.Enkhbold by the Minister of Justice and Domestic Affairs, Mr S.Byambatsogt.
The latter, in noting Mongolians have gotten even more offshore properties and bank accounts since 1990 when the nation gained better access to the outside world, said out of the total USD 15 million foreign investments flown to Mongolia between 1990 and 2015, USD 10 billion was made from offshore regions. What’s more, there were over some 13 thousand companies with foreign investments were newly recorded in Mongolia during that period of time of which a thousand companies were invested from offshore zones, he added.
Taking into consideration the fact that the people’s confidence towards the government has been weakening over the iterating discoveries of offshore bank accounts and companies owned by high-ranking government officials, the law initiators have workd out the bill to handle clash of personal interests in the government affairs and public service.
The bill sets out provisions, which ban the government officials, who are obligated to submit income statements to the Corruption combating agency (CCA), to have bank accounts or operating legal entity in offshore regions.
However, the bill will not apply to private businesses.
