Centre Party wants greater involvement of parties in preparation of MP bribery law

Centre rejects proposal by working group of experts

Timo Kalli

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Timo Kalli, chairman of the Parliamentary group of the Centre Party, says that Finland’s political parties should have a say in the preparation of a new bill that would change legislation on the bribery of Members of Parliament.
      The group has rejected the fresh proposal for legislative change, which was drawn up by a group of experts of the Ministry of Justice.
      The proposal has also been criticised by the Parliamentary group of the other main government party, the National Coalition.
     
According to Timo Kalli, a new working group needs to be established, which would draw up a new proposal for regulations on bribery.
      The Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has asked Finland for a report on the reform of regulations on the bribery of Members of Parliament by the end of June.
      “The timetable gives good possibilities for a new proposal. We still have the spring to deal with it”, Kalli says.
     
The composition of the previous working group was too narrow in Kalli’s opinion. The group working on proposals for amending the criminal code had members of the Ministry of Justice, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the University of Turku.
      Kalli feels that a new working group should also have representatives of the political parties, Parliamentary groups, and possibly non-governmental organisations.
      The views of the Parliamentary groups of the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party were expressed in statements submitted by the groups to the Ministry of Justice last week.
      The groups say that the proposal does not state clearly enough what kind of activity on the part of an MP would meet the criteria of taking a bribe, and what would not.
      “In a system based on the election of individual people, labelling an MP with suspicion of a crime can be used as a political weapon. That is why regulation should be precise, and should have clear boundaries, so that our legislation would not be misused”, said the Centre Party’s Parliamentary group in its statement.
     
The Centre Party MPs feel that the proposal of the working group does not sufficiently take into account the differences and similarities in the tasks of civil servants and Members of Parliament, nor has it considered where the line should be drawn between permissible and forbidden forms of communication between politicians and affinity groups.
     The Parliamentary groups of the Green League and the Left Alliance have already voiced support for the proposal of the Ministry of Justice working group.
     The Parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party also supports reform in bribery legislation, but is not yet taking a stand on details.
     
Currently it is nearly impossible for an MP to be found criminally guilty of taking a bribe. GRECO has urged Finland to amend its legislation.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Stricter provisions concerning bribery of members of Finnish Parliament (20.10.2009)
  Finland given a workover in Transparency International corruption report (28.9.2009)
  Finnish corruption: subtle, but by no means non-existent (4.8.2009)

Links:
  Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)

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