PRESIDENT KH.BATTULGA MEETS IAAC HEADS TO DISCUSS INVESTIGATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
President Kh.Battulga met with General Director of the Independent Authority Against Corruption ( IAAC) Kh.Enkhjargal and Deputy General Director of the IAAC Ts.Nyamdorj on Monday to discuss the investigation of the 90-minute audiotape of the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) which allegedly uncovers a plot to sell government positions to raise 60 billion MNT. The tape was leaked to the public during parliamentary election campaigns in June last year.
The President underlined that he met with the IAAC heads to get information about the investigation’s progress.
President Kh.Battulga noted that US Legal Audio Video company confirmed that the audiotape was not a montage audio and said that the conversation recorded took place between three people in the same room for 90 minutes, and noted that Mongolian law enforcement authorities’ investigations into the case has been progressing sluggishly.
Kh.Enkhjargal pointed out that the National Policy Agency of Mongolia (NPA) investigated the legitimacy of the audiotape, the General Intelligence Agency (GIA) investigated to find whether MPP made government appointments in an illegal way, and the IAAC investigated how government positions were appointed after the parliamentary election of 2016.
He noted that the IAAC investigated 130 people, including high ranking government officials such as ministers and heads of ministries’ departments and agencies, but the IAAC did not find any violations in appointment procedure.
Kh.Enkhjargal emphasized that this case was closed in 2016 under the Criminal Investigation Law, and added that law enforcement authorities, including the NPA, GIA, and IAAC, have no authority to investigate the case further. The IAAC can conduct intelligence operations to uncover corruption but cannot interrogate people over a case that has been closed.
He added that only if the Criminal Investigation Law is amended to allow the law enforcement to investigate such cases again, the IAAC will be able to conduct further investigation.