Ulaanbaatar
IAAC: Complaints regarding local government corruption increasing
Society
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The Independent Authority Against Corruption’s (IAAC) Research and Analysis division reviews the implementation of its statutory functions to evaluate the effectiveness of its internal operations and increase productivity. One of them is a monthly analysis of received complaints and information regarding corruption.
In April 2021, the IAAC received a total of 183 complaints from citizens, businesses, and institutions. Of these, 95 complaints were received from Ulaanbaatar city, and 14 were received from Bayan-Ulgii and Uvs province respectively.
In terms of nature of complaints, 104 (56.8%) related to criminal activity and 44 (24%) were regarding public officials’ conflicts of interest and declaration of income and assets. Overall, the IAAC received 32 non-jurisdictional complaints regarding public official’s activity. Citizens tend to believe that the IAAC will resolve every issue they face regarding the public institution.
The IAAC is responsible for investigating corruption activity regarding the Anti-Corruption Law, the Law on Public and Private Interests in the Public Service, and the Law on Criminal Procedure. If the complaint is not related to the violations in the jurisdiction of IAAC, it must be transferred to the relevant government authority in accordance with its jurisdiction promptly.
The majority of corruption complaints filed to the IAAC are related to local governments. Most of the corruption activity information is regarding the Local Governor’s Office, with the most common being related to human resources, budget spending, tenders, procurement, civil service activities, and licensing. Of the complaints filed regarding the local government sector, 34 were related to criminal activities and 19 were about conflicts of interest and declarations of income and assets.
According to the analysis of the corruption complaints filed in April 2021, it is necessary to take special measures to intensify the prevention of corruption and conflicts of interest in the Local Governor’s Offices of the province and the capital city and identify the causes and circumstances of the violation by conducting a detailed analysis of the complaints related to the local governments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, the government of Mongolia imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the steep surge in local cases between April 10 and May 8 which may have increased the risk of local government’s corruption.
Source: Independent Authority Against Corruption
