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Bill: Civil Service Independence Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Social-Liberal Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: February 2083
Description[?]:
| The Parliament of Beluzia declares that the essential role of Beluzian civil servants is to be impartial advisors to government ministers and to be fair implementers of policies ratified by the Beluzian parliament.. The Parliament furthermore declares that public servants are servants of the whole community and not any group thereof. The Parliament therefore establishes a system of selection and promotion based on merit, whilst establishing Integrity, Objectivity and Impartiality are the core Beluzian civil service values, with Democracy and Efficiency as the core principles of its public administration. All government employees have to promise political independence. Civil service employees who are members of political parties may find work in the civil service, but such memberships shall in no way influence their selection or promotion. The principles laid out in the previous paragraph shall be the guiding principles of their work, not the ideas of their party. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Appointments and requirements for government employees.
Old value:: Government employees are selected and appointed in a political way.
Current: Government employees are selected and appointed in a political way.
Proposed: All government employees have to promise political independence.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 03:51:31, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | We believe that this sensible approach to the civil service deserves the support of all the parties in this parliament. |
| Date | 04:09:55, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Free Beluzians | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | The Free Beluzian Party certainly supports the Civil Service Independance Act. |
| Date | 04:26:06, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Beluzian Labor Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Labor believes that this proposal is naive in the extreme. First of all, it is an unreasonable imposition on the freedom of conscience and political civil liberties of Beluzia's civil servants. Second of all, while this may sound like a good idea, when you get down and think about it, it isn't a good idea at all, because many civil service positions should be occupied by people dedicated to the Government's position in order to ensure their full committment to the policies they are implementing. In such positions, a political affiliation is actually desirable. Naturally Labor believes that the civil service as a whole should be independent and objective, but to deny public servants the right to join political parties (which you are effectively doing by demanding that they swear political independence) is an intolerable restriction of their rights, and demonstrates an extremely naive view of the civil service. |
| Date | 04:26:09, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Beluzian Labor Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Labor believes that this proposal is naive in the extreme. First of all, it is an unreasonable imposition on the freedom of conscience and political civil liberties of Beluzia's civil servants. Second of all, while this may sound like a good idea, when you get down and think about it, it isn't a good idea at all, because many civil service positions should be occupied by people dedicated to the Government's position in order to ensure their full committment to the policies they are implementing. In such positions, a political affiliation is actually desirable. Naturally Labor believes that the civil service as a whole should be independent and objective, but to deny public servants the right to join political parties (which you are effectively doing by demanding that they swear political independence) is an intolerable restriction of their rights, and demonstrates an extremely naive view of the civil service. |
| Date | 07:41:00, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Beluzian Labor Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Sorry for the double post! |
| Date | 10:45:47, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Partisans And Artisans League | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | The problem with this legislation is that neither possibility is ideal. In my opinion, there should be a third possibility something along the lines of, "Government employees are selected on merit alone - never on their personal politics" or something like that. What do you think? |
| Date | 10:49:38, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Perhaps the representative of the Beluzian Labor Party should familiarise himself with the principles of Good Government. If he did he would recognise that the job of a civil servant, as with other jobs, is separate from the position he occupies as a natural person. It is therefore very much possible that someone in the civil service is a member of a political party. Nowhere does this proposal ban some of our most educated and informed citizens from banning political parties! However, we feel that the Beluzian civil service should remain dedicated to the common cause of the Nation in the implementation of its policies. Party membership and patronage by favoured politicians should play no role in the selection, promotion, and advice of an indepent civil service. |
| Date | 11:10:25, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Beluzian Labor Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Labor proposes amending the bill so that it is made clear that you will not exclude members of political parties from working in the public service, in that case. We would not oppose the bill in this case. |
| Date | 11:14:10, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Free Beluzians | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | As far as the FBP understands this bill, various civil servants can remain part of political parties, and support those parties in unofficial capacities. But they cannot favor one party over another officially, just like appointed justices. |
| Date | 11:25:29, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Thus amended. |
| Date | 11:45:18, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Beluzian Labor Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Labor is reasonably happy with the amended bill. |
| Date | 12:28:38, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | Re: Pal The SLP believes that the current proposal endorses the situation you described. |
| Date | 13:15:55, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Partisans And Artisans League | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | I suppose it does but do you think we should raise this issue on the forum so that this does not need to be a footnote in a description but rather can become the policy as a whole? What are your thoughts? Are you a member of the forum? |
| Date | 15:16:08, July 19, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Civil Service Independence Act |
| Message | OOC: I am on the forum. I do think however that "political" and "non-political" overlap quite a bit. If you suggest it I'll give it a casual nod of support, I suppose, but for now I think this will do. We can always reconsider and bring it up again if the new issue is implemented - which will take time. Assuming multi-party support, I am bringing this bill up to vote. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 236 | ||||||
| no | Total Seats: 0 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 38 |
| Random fact: "Treaty-locking", or ratifiying treaties that completely or nearly completely forbid any proposals to change laws, is not allowed. Amongst other possible sanctions, Moderation reserves the discretion to delete treaties and/or subject parties to a seat reset if this is necessary in order to reverse a treaty-lock situation. |
| Random quote: "The truth is that men are tired of liberty." - Benito Mussolini |