Vetoed Secretary Accountability and Transparency Act

[Pacman]

A
BILL
To

Establish a system to ensure the accountability of cabinet Secretaries.​

The people of Democracy Craft, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the “Secretary Accountability Act 2020”.
(2) This Act shall come into force upon its signage by the President.

2 - Secretary Question Time
For the purposes of the Act -
(1) Question Time refers to an hour long period in which cabinet Secretaries take questions from members of Congress.

Provisions -
(2) The Speaker of Congress shall work with the Secretaries to schedule a Question Time every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week.

1. A Secretary must attend Question Time at least once each week. Failure to attend the minimum amount of Question Times will result in receiving the punishment defined in Section 3.

(3) The Speaker of Congress shall work with both the Congress and Secretaries to ensure that as many members as possible may attend Question Time.
(4) All standing rules will apply to the Congress when Question Time is in session.

3 - Transparency
(1) All government departments must once a week create a thorough transparency report, with no intentional bias nor false information. See section 3 for more information on the consequences of false information and bias on reports. This shall create efficiency and will make it more probable and easier to hold departments accountable for their actions.
(2) These transparency reports must contain beneficial information, said information will be discussed in section 4.
(3) These reports must be published in a publicly accessible place on the forums (https://democracycraft.net), meaning that non-logged in accounts and non-department members can view these reports.

4 - Consequences
(1) The consequences depend upon the intentions behind the actions taken, therefore, cases will be judged on a case to case basis.
(2) In the case of false information being stated on a report, the secretary of the department which put out that report has 1 week to withdraw the information and put in correct information.
(3) The punishments for intentional bias and knowingly putting false information into these reports is the same as corruption, however, if it is deemed that there were good intentions and the department did not profit off the actions, there will only be a fine of $5,000.
(4) The punishment for failure to attend the minimum amount of Question Times is $60 for each requirement missed.

5 - Information On Reports
(1) All reports must follow the format discussed in section 5, and be thorough and clear.
(2) The information in said reports must contain (but can have more): Department spending, Department financial gain, current Department projects, Department hirings, Department firings, reason behind each firing of any employees in the Department, and information on any lawsuits/court cases they are taking part of as the defendant or prosecutor.


6 - Format
(1) The reports must follow this format (detailed below):

• Department Name
• Secretary Name
• Date and Time
• Department spendings & gains.
• All other information mentioned in section 4 (order does not matter)
• Clear ending
• Statement of accountability (see section 6)

7 - Accountability Statement
(1) The statement of accountability is as follows:
“<Name> am representing the interests of <Department name> and am acting without personal intentional bias nor knowingly writing false information, I am aware that I can be charged with corruption in the case that I am doing so. I am not abusing these reports for financial or personal gain, nor too blastheme or shame corporations or people.”

 

[End]

Vetoed - This is a thorough and well thought out bill, however the Cabinet will already be releasing a State of the Government Report once a month to describe the happenings of the department and future goals. In addition:
- Not enough happens in less than 7 days to constitute a mandatory meeting;
- I don't see 156 Question Times as viable in the long term;
- There is no provision in this Bill for absences; and
- Departments disclosing specific employee information is invasive to the employee's privacy.

Cabinet voted on this decision and made the following recommendations:
- Cabinet meeting notes will be publicly released.
- State of the Government Reports will be written each month.
- Executive members will be made available to address the Congress on request.

If Congress wishes, the SOTG Report can be made in an in-person address to the chamber for the public to watch. In addition, the President will make himself available once a fortnight to partake in a question time with Representatives.

I'll work with Cabinet to include some of the components of this bill in our future reports.