MPs urge better audit of big state companies

Two DP MPs, Ya. Batsuuri and E. Bat-Uul, have expressed concern that state-owned companies are “used as milk cows” by those in power and said that until there is operational transparency in them, they “will remain hotbeds of corruption”. Some time ago, they wrote to Prime Minister S. Batbold demanding that the accounts of all large state-owned companies be “audited by firms with an international profile”. They included the Erdenet Factory, Ulaanbaatar Railway, MIAT, the Civil Aviation Authority, all power stations, and some coal mines among entities they would like to be so audited and asked for the audit reports to be presented to Parliament. The Prime Minister has not yet responded to the letter but the Head of the Cabinet Secretariat, Ch. Khurelbaatar, attended a debate in Parliament on the issue.

During the debate Bat-Uul made the point that political parties and politicians consider corruption only as an election issue and ignore it the rest of the time. Allegations of corruption are regularly brushed under the carpet. He asked Parliament to be more active “to arrest this damage to society”. Khurelbaatar later said “concentration of power in Parliament is one reason of increased corruption”. Centralization of authority gives MPs too much leeway and transferring some budgetary and monetary rights to local governments would help reduce corruption.