The Code of Ethics of a Member of the Parliament of Georgia in Action (Experience of the Parliament 2020)

Abstract

The political credibility and accountability of the parliament to society are necessaryprerequisites for representative democracy to function. (ODIHR/OSCE, 2012) The growth oflegal knowledge and political culture requires the ethical regulation of lawmakers' behavior.The adoption of ethical and conscientious governance practices contributes to increasedpublic trust in the democratic system's effectiveness and fairness. In parliamentary systems,there are various approaches for controlling behavior, while a written code of ethics iscommonly used. Examples of challenges, scandals, and controversies in parliamentarydemocracies show that developing and implementing norms governing ethical behaviorthrough consultation with parties and their active participation can play an important role inthe process of restoring transparency and trust in the democratic system.It is hard to design a specific recipe that will be beneficial in all scenarios to raise ethicalstandards of parliamentary behavior. For the process of reforming ethical standards to beeffective, an appropriate strategy must be developed, which includes identifying problemsspecific to the political system during the reform process, considering specific political andinstitutional conditions, and ensuring compliance with the constitution, existing legislation,and international standards. (ODIHR/OSCE, 2012). At the request of the OSCE, Georgia's Parliament enacted the first Code of Ethics, with theactive participation of the NGO Transparency International-Georgia (Caucasian Institute forPeace and Development, 2014). The code was in effect for the 2004-2008 Parliamentarysession. It should be highlighted that this code produced ineffective outcomes since it lackedan appropriate method for responding to breaches. After the code's mandate expired, thecivil sector actively lobbied Georgia's Parliament to create a new code of ethics, but it wasnot possible to set ethical standards for members of parliament for 11 years. (2020,Transparency International-Georgia). 2016-2020 The Open Governance Parliamentary Council, with the participation ofinternational and local experts, actively worked on the draft of the Code of Ethics, whichprovided for strict sanctions in case of violations; however, the said draft could not beadopted on 19 April 2018 due to insufficient support of the deputies. Finally, on 22 February2019, the Parliament of Georgia adopted the Code of Ethics in an amended form, which is apermanent document and therefore applies to all sessions of the Parliament. The EthicsCouncil has been entrusted with the monitoring of violations of the Code of Ethics. It shouldbe emphasized that the main difference between the above drafts was the issue ofdetermining sanctions, and both drafts of the Code were developed by the PermanentParliamentary Council for Open Government. (Transparency International-Georgia, 2020)The purpose of the Code of Ethics of the Parliament is to set high ethical standards for theMembers of the Parliament of Georgia and to promote conscientious and responsiblebehavior. The legal basis of the Code is the Constitution of Georgia, the Rules of Procedureof the Parliament, and other legal acts. The Code provides for disciplinary sanctions, such asa letter of recommendation, withholding of salary (from 10% to a maximum of 50%), andsuspension of participation in official visits for a maximum of 6 months, in case of violation ofethical norms by the MP. Only one measure of responsibility can be applied to eachdisciplinary offense. Furthermore, the name and surname of the MP who violated theCode's rules, as well as a brief description of the incident, should have been published onthe Parliament's website, according to the Code of Ethics. (2019, Parliament)Although the creation of an ethics code for legislators might be regarded as a positive step,examples of ethical infractions by MPs remain unresolved, and the code is simply formal.The non-governmental sector's advice to build strong accountability measures was notshared by the Georgian Parliament. It has also been unable to adequately staff the EthicsCouncil, which makes receiving complaints and responding appropriately to ethicaltransgressions impossible. (2019, Transparency International-Georgia) As a result, there is afair perception that there is no genuine political desire to address the situation andimplement ethical ways for the government. Based on all the above, the purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Codeof Ethics of the Member of Parliament on the example of the Parliament of the X convocationand to identify the key causes that prevent its success. Within the framework of theresearch, the documents on the subject, the reports of international and local organizations,and the normative acts regulating the activity of the parliament were studied. In addition,interviews were conducted with politicians, which allowed us to assess their attitudes towardthe establishment of ethical standards.