Civil service serves the people, reminds Speaker G.Zandanshatar

The Standing Committee on Ethics and Discipline and the Civil Service Council jointly held the discussion for the bill on civil servants’ ethics on November 16 at the State Palace.

Highlighting that more than 60 laws regulate the ethical relations of civil servants, Speaker of Parliament G.Zandanshatar remarked, “Clause 2.6 of Article 3.3 of the National Security Concept of Mongolia approved by Parliamentary Resolution No. 48 of 2010 states that public servants’ ethical, knowledge and skill requirements will be refined in line with international standards and conditions will be created for efficient job performance. The Standing Committee on Ethics and Discipline re-approved the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament.”

Government officials should not forget that their actions and activities are being monitored by citizens. The essence of the civil service is to serve the people, the speaker emphasized.

Lawmakers J.Munkhbat, B.Bat-Erdene, Yo.Baatarbileg and B.Bayarsaikhan drafted the bill on civil servants’ ethics and submitted it to Parliament. Speaker G.Zandanshatar mentioned that the bill was posted on the D-Parliament platform to receive comments from citizens.

During the discussion, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Discipline B.Battumur underscored that one of the main goals of the amendment of the Constitution of Mongolia is to make the civil service fair, ethical, disciplined, stable and competent. By cooperating with the Civil Service Council, the activities of the ethics councils established at government organizations have been aligned over the past year. As a result, ethical violations of civil servants are discussed and resolved within the framework of the relevant laws, which shows progress in the implementation of the Law on Civil Service, he said. Therefore, by empowering ethics councils, there is an expectation that positive changes will be made in the ethical issues in civil service.

Currently, there are 208,864 civil servants working in 4,206 government organizations. Of these, 21,135 are public administrative employees, 4,165 are government officials, 45,899 are special government officials and 137,665 are civil service employees, according to Chairman B.Battumur.

At the discussion, Academician Sc.D. S.Narangerel made a presentation on the scientific basis of the ethical code of Mongolian civil servants, while Consultant Professor of the National University of Mongolia PhD R.Darikhuu gave a speech on terminological issues of the bill on the ethics of civil servants.

Professor of the National Academy of Governance PhD A.Altanzul reported on the legal framework for the operation of the ethics councils and Senior Referent of the Civil Service Council PhD J.Jamyantiv introduced ancestral lessons on creating public ethics.

While expressing their support for the bill, the participants stressed the need to pay attention to the clear clarification of ethics and morals in the bill, classify the consequences of moral violations as light and severe and clearly reflect the liability issues.

Parliamentarian Ch.Undram informed, “In the future, we will organize a series of discussions for the bill to develop the civil service and increase the trust of citizens in the public service.”

More than 100 people participated in the discussion, including lawmakers, officials of the Civil Service Council and representatives of ministries, agencies, organizations and academia.