Interior ministry seeks conflict-of-interest rules for local lawmakers

The interior ministry said it plans to require local council members to register and publicly disclose private-interest relationships under a Local Council Act it is pursuing for enactment before the end of this year.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to include the controls in the proposed legislation. Its package would cover registration and public disclosure of private-interest relationships, advance reporting for sole-source contracts and provisions for recommending that a contract be reviewed.

The registration-and-disclosure requirement would apply to private-interest relationships involving local council members. Under the ministry's plan, those relationships would be entered in a register and disclosed publicly as requirements written into the Local Council Act. The act is the vehicle the ministry is pursuing for its conflict-of-interest rules.

Separate provisions would address sole-source contracts. Local council members would be required to report in advance to the Ethics Review Advisory Committee when a local government enters a sole-source contract with their private-interest parties. The committee could recommend that the local government review a contract it finds inappropriate. Both steps would be placed alongside the rules on private-interest relationships.

The ministry's proposal frames the measures as conflict-of-interest controls for local lawmakers. It brings private-interest registration and disclosure together with advance contract reporting and recommendations to review contracts in the planned Local Council Act. The requirements are to be included as the act is pursued this year.

The ministry is seeking enactment of the act within the year as part of its plan. The legislative proposal includes disclosure of private interests, advance reporting for sole-source contracts and recommendations that contracts be reviewed, alongside the registration requirement for local council members.