REMEDY FOR IMPROVING LOBBYING IN SLOVAKIA
Submitted by christian on Tue, 09/05/2017 - 13:38
- The Slovak government should make the Interdepartmental Comments Procedure portal more open and transparent. Currently, the Slovak Interdepartmental Comments Procedure and its accompanying Directive require that all official documents designated for government sessions have to be first published online for consultation. Any interested parties are allowed to comment including government ministries, public bodies, organized interests and the public at large. The standard period for consultation is 10-15 days, and in exceptional situations this may be shortened to five days. The comments can be submitted by email or through a dedicated online portal following compulsory registration. This portal is open to view, and compiles a range of information per item, as well as tracking the overall process of the initiative. The comments themselves are divided into the following categories: general, particular, material, legal, legislative technical and technical-linguistic. There is an opportunity to designate certain parts of the feedback as “essential”, requiring it to be considered by the proposer of the bill. There is also a category of Collective Comment (CC) where a particular view is expressed jointly by at least 500 natural and/or legal persons. “Essential” comments that are subject of conflict and have been submitted through CC or by a government entity are subject to a special consultation/ dispute resolution process. All comments are responded to by the proposer of the legislative change, noting whether they are accepted, partially accepted, or declined, and why. Following the consultation procedure, the proposals are tabled for government discussion and from then on, if applicable, move to parliament. This system has made the creation of legislation more open to the public, fostering participation and understanding of government decision-making and creating some safeguards against undue influence. It has also improved the communication between the ministries and other involved bodies. However, the comments portal is not very intuitive, the notifications are sometimes not well communicated and the submission periods are not always respected. Moreover, the proposals and amendments by members of parliament do not have to go through this process which creates a big window of opportunity for opaque influence. The legislative process would improve with a clearer and more comprehensive process for commenting on draft legislation. There is great potential for lowering corruption risks and strengthening transparency by involving citizens in the legislative process.
- The government should make the public oversight of parliamentary procedures more transparent. As amendments to proposed legislation are often proposed in the second and third reading in parliament, they should be published for an appropriate period of time before being voted on.
- The government should establish minimum “cooling off periods” before former public and elected officials can work in lobbying positions that may create conflicts of interest and create a permissions process from a designated ethics office before a lobbying-related appointment can be taken up by former public officials, former members of parliament, and former members of the executive (national and subnational levels). Furthermore, public Institutions should collect and publish data on the professional careers of their employees (e.g. revolving door transparency).
- The government should develop legislation to include a comprehensive definition of lobbying, lobbyists and lobbying targets to be applicable in other laws, so the already existing regulations (such as revolving door provisions and cooling-off periods) would also apply to lobbyists and lobbying activities.
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