Assessment of Anti-Corruption Legislation (MK0125)

Collaboration with the civil sector for anti-corruption assessment of legislation
Start and end date of the commitment: September 2018 – August 2020
Lead implementing agency
State Commission for Preventing Corruption
Description of commitment
Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment
Unjustified discretionary authorizations, gaps in laws and uncertainties are potential risks of corruption. They allow exploitation of the meaning of the law and abuse of the rules due to exercising private interests. The anti-corruption assessment of the legislation, as an extremely important preventive anticorruption mechanism, aims to provide revision of the form and content of legal regulations that are in drafting procedures or are already adopted, as well as detection and prevention of risks regarding the possibility of corruption and conflict of interest which could occur during the implementation of the laws. In September 2015, the SCPC has adopted the Methodology for Anti-Corruption assessment of legislation that promotes the implementation of the SCPC's competence for giving opinions on draft laws, set out in the Law on Prevention of Corruption and the Law on Prevention of Conflicts of Interest. In February 2016, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia has adopted the Rules of Procedure for amending the Rules of Procedure of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia" No. 41/16), which introduced an opportunity for anticorruption verification of legislation by providing an opinion from SCPC. The amendment stipulates that the ministries and other state administration bodies, the materials that they submit to the Government for review, determination, or adoption, must be submitted to the SCPC for opinion (all draft laws that are subject to regulatory impact assessment). Within this authorization, the SCPC conducts an in-depth analysis of the legislation on the grounds of established methodology, i.e. conducts anticorruption assessment and provides special reports on the assessment made, which are published on the website of the SCPC.
Main objective
Realization of collaboration with the civil sector in the process of anticorruption assessment of the legislation
Brief description of the commitment
SCPC and civil society organizations will develop a mechanism for collaboration in the consultative processes during the law adoption, as well as in the process of selection and prioritization of the laws that have already been adopted, and will be subject to anti-corruption assessment of the legislation. In accordance with the Anti-Corruption Legislation Methodology, the SCPC will select and prioritize laws that will be subject to assessment on the grounds of common criteria or seperate cases. Separate cases relate to findings reporting and indications by civil society, concerning the risks of possible corruption and conflict of interests in certain legal provisions or in a particular legal area, information on a draftlaw that has been exposed to strong lobbying by interest groups, etc. CSOs and their networks should be proactive and more active at this stage - by participating in working groups, then at the level of consultations, when they can send comments on behalf of the groups they represent, but also by providing indications to the SCPC and giving recommendations legislation amendments.
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment
Undertaking activities that will continually point out the importance of civil society organizations and the public’s inclusion in the process of adopting and amending the laws, emphasizing the benefits of such an approach, and indicating out the positive effects of the laws that were adopted through a transparent process in which recommendations and proposals by CSO’s have been accepted. In addition to anti-corruption assessment of legislation which is in a process of adoption, it is extremely important to give due attention to the already adopted rules. Cooperation with the non-governmental sector, i.e. the development of a consultation mechanism, will help the selection and focus process that will be revised, based on the civil sector assessments regarding risk legislative areas. Recommendations given by the civil sector will be incorporated in the regulatory amendments.
Additional information Refference to the Global Sustainable Development Goals, refference to Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, Target 16.5: Significant reduction in all forms of corruption and bribery. The measures under this commitment contribute to prevention and fight against corruption and protection of public interest.
Milestone
2.2.1 Established consultation mechanisam during the law adoption and prioritizing the laws that will be subject to anticorruption assessment of legislation
Contact information
Name of responsible person from implementing agency M.A. Nikolina Tarchugovska – Miloshevska Adem Chuchulj
Title, Department
Secretariat of the SCPC Sector for prevention of corruption and conflict of interest
Phone and e-mail
02 3248-942 nikolina@dksk.org.mk, 02 3248- 934 a.cucul@dksk.org.mk, 02 3215-377
Other actors involved
State commission for preventing corruption
Misha Popovikj, IDSCS, misha@idscs.org M.A. Snezhana Kamilovska Trpovska, Macedonian Center for International Cooperation skt@mcms.mk and othrer civil society organizations

Theme II: Integrity and Good Governance

2.2 Collaboration with the civil sector for anti-corruption assessment of legislation

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [32]

SCPC and civil society organizations will develop a mechanism for collaboration in the consultative processes during the law adoption, as well as in the process of selection and prioritization of the laws that have already been adopted, and will be subject to anti-corruption assessment of the legislation. In accordance with the Anti-Corruption Legislation Methodology, the SCPC will select and prioritize laws that will be subject to assessment on the grounds of common criteria or separate cases. Separate cases relate to findings reporting and indications by civil society, concerning the risks of possible corruption and conflict of interests in certain legal provisions or in a particular legal area, information on a draft-law that has been exposed to strong lobbying by interest groups, etc. CSOs and their networks should be proactive and more active at this stage - by participating in working groups, then at the level of consultations, when they can send comments on behalf of the groups they represent, but also by providing indications to the SCPC and giving recommendations legislation amendments.

Millstones:

2.2.1 Established consultation mechanism during the law adoption and prioritizing the laws that will be subject to anticorruption assessment of legislation

Start Date: September 2018

End Date: August 2020

Context and Objectives

As part of the 2016-2019 State Programme, the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) introduced a process of carrying out anti-corruption reviews for North Macedonian legislation. [33] This covers legislation that is being drafted or has been adopted and seeks to detect, prevent, or minimize the risk of corruption and conflict of interests that may emerge from the implementation of new laws. This commitment calls for SCPC and CSOs to jointly create a consultation mechanism for civil society to contribute to anti-corruption reviews of legislation. Specifically, the consultation mechanism will provide civil society with the opportunity to review draft legislation and to be involved in the selection and prioritization of laws that have already been adopted and will be subject to anti-corruption review. According to the action plan, civil society will be able to participate in working groups, at the level of consultations, and where organizations can send comments and recommendations to SCPC on legislation amendments.

This commitment is relevant to civic participation because it aims to provide civil society with the opportunity to review and submit feedback on legislation. The main activity is verifiable, namely the establishment of the consultation mechanism. However, the action plan does not provide additional details on the possible operations of the mechanism beyond civil society involvement through working groups.

The potential impact of this commitment will largely depend on how the consultation mechanism is set up and functions, as well as how many draft laws it is able to assess and how the laws are prioritized for assessment. As such, the potential impact is marked as minor.

Next steps

Moving forward, the SCPC could consider the following recommendations:

• Ensure open and transparent process for selecting CSOs for the consultation mechanism.
• Define expected number and nature of draft laws from the beginning so that the burden of participation in the mechanism is clear to the civil society members.
• Provide training as needed for the participating CSOs to ensure effective functioning of the consultation mechanism.
• Hold consultations at the scenarios (green paper) stage before the drafting of laws begins.

[32] The texts for all the commitments are an abridged version of the commitment texts. For the full commitment texts, see the Republic of North Macedonia 2018-2020 National Action Plan, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Macedonia_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf

[33] Republic of Macedonia, State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, http://www.dksk.org.mk/en/images/stories/PDF/stateprograme-eng-final.pdf

Commitment 2.2 Collaboration with civil society on anti-corruption assessment of legislation

Not started:

SCPC did not have sufficient human resources to ensure effective functioning of the Department for Anticorruption Legislative. [18] SCPC, in cooperation with the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis and FOSM, plans to conduct four analyses for corruption proofing of legislation. However, the participants have not yet agreed on the timeline and details of these activities. [19]