This Anti-Corruption Helpdesk brief was produced in response to a query from one of Transparency International’s national chapters. The Anti-Corruption Helpdesk is operated by Transparency International and funded by the European Union.
Query
Can you help identify good practice in organising parliamentary ethics commissions?
Purpose
Our National Assembly is adopting a code of ethics and asked for our help in setting up a parliamentary ethics committee.
Content
- Parliamentary ethics: role and organisation of oversight bodies
- Country examples
- References
Summary
Parliaments have a key role to play in the fight against corruption and the duty to uphold to the highest standards of integrity. In recent years, many countries have established comprehensive ethics regimes to ensure that MPs perform their functions in an ethical manner, and that encompasses a code of conduct, specific ethic rules detailing the requirement to fulfil the code and a regulatory institution to enforce these rules.
The institution charged with monitoring and enforcing the code is a key contributing factor to its effectiveness. There are three major approaches to enforcement, including: self-regulation – the regulatory body is created within the legislature, such as in Poland and Ireland; external regulation – an external body, independent from the legislature, is created; a combination of both – elements of self-regulations are combined with an external, independent regulatory body, such as in France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Authors
Marie Chêne, Transparency International, [email protected]Reviewers
Finn Heinrich, Ph D., [email protected]Date
28/11/2016
