Mongolia’s ratification and accession to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on October 7th, 2005, and its commitment to the international community is a major representation of Mongolia’s commitment to the fight against corruption.
Under the auspices of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, the Parliament of Mongolia re-enacted the Anti-Corruption law in 2006, thus established The Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC). IAAC is a special, independent government body charged with functions to raise anti-corruption public awareness and education, and corruption prevention activities, and to carry out undercover operations, inquiries, and investigations in detecting corruption crimes, and to review and inspect the assets and income declarations of public officials.
In Mongolia, the number of detected corruption crimes is increasing year by year. In 2020, IAAC had investigated 1331 reported corruption crime cases with 696 suspects. A total of 236 cases were referred to the court, 509 cases were closed, 48 cases were transferred to the relevant authority with 63.5 percent of the cases resolved. Overall, 114 cases were resolved in the court.
During the investigation, 35.6 billion tugriks (approx. 12.5 million USD) have been reimbursed, and also property, cash valued at 10.1 trillion tugriks (3.5 billion USD) including real estate, vehicles, and valuables has been frozen and seized. Compared with the IAAC’s manpower and capacity this is the result of a great deal of hard work and effective investigation. IAAC is currently working to identify and return stolen assets originating in Mongolia located in foreign countries under international agreements.
Currently, Mongolia has signed 28 bilateral agreements with 20 countries, including 17 Agreements on the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal, 17 Agreement on the Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial matters, 17 Agreement on Extradition of Offenders, and 9 Agreement on Extradition of Convicted Offenders. Following the agreement, Mongolia has done the following criminal proceedings.
The Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs provided legal assistance upon requests from foreign and domestic organizations and referred them to the relevant authorities, provided with the necessary information and translation. Most of the requests come from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In the last three years, Mongolia has sent a total of 88 legal assistance requests abroad. As of the 4h quarter of 2019, Mongolia has received a total of 50 legal assistance requests from foreign and domestic organizations of which 9 were criminal case legal assistance.
In the last three years, the general meaning of requests for legal assistance in criminal cases has been related to corruption, official misconduct, fraud, transfer of large sums of money abroad as a result of cyberattacks and murder. Mongolia has been working effectively to address these requests promptly. For example, under the “Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters” between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea, the South Korean court’s decision was enforced in 2011 based on the “Agreement on Cooperation between the Prosecutor’s Offices”.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea sent a request for legal assistance and a power of attorney to represent the institution to the Prosecutor’s General Office of Mongolia. Based on the power of attorney, the Capital City Court Decision Enforcement Department has frozen the real estate specified in the Korean Court decision and the bank account of the relevant company registered in Mongolia. At the same time, the real estate was assessed and some of the assets of the convicted person were returned to the Republic of Korea with the remaining part transferred after the Mongolian side deducted enforcement fees and other costs following the relevant regulations.
Due to the importance of international cooperation in the fight against corruption, IAAC is rapidly developing its cooperation with foreign Anti-Corruption organizations.
