ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - Only two of the five members in the council monitoring compliance with the code of conduct of state officials adopted by the government are independent experts so it seems that state officials will self-assess whether their conduct is ethical, the GONG civil society oganisation said on Tuesday.
The other three members are two state officials in the executive authority and a civil servant from the ruling majority, GONG said, recalling that the code stipulates the principles of protecting the public interest and maintaining citizens' trust as well as the rules of exemplary conduct and rational use of public resources.
The government adopted the anti-corruption code after one of the key anti-corruption bodies, the Conflict of Interest Commission, was weakened, the NGO said.
The Commission lost its authority to decide on violations of the principles of conduct because, as explained by Justice Minister Ivan Malenica, it was not set up as a body of ethics, GONG said.
The government replaced independent oversight which the Commission did when it opened cases against government members, with a political body in which experts are in the minority, GONG said.
In order for the code of ethics to help protect office-holders' integrity, there has to be a body responsible for monitoring the code's application, as said in the latest report by GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body, the NGO said.
Instead of strengthening the independent Conflict of Interest Commission and specifying its authority over compliance with the principles of conduct, the government has established a council only for form's sake and to muddy the contents, GONG said.
