2013 Public Integrity Act

The 2013 Public Integrity Act, originally proposed as the Senatorial Divestment Bill, is a piece of legislation intended to regulate the business interests of serving politicians in the Divine Republic of Kresimiria.

Introduced by Northern Power leader Syv Iric, the bill was initially designed to force powerful Senator-businessmen, most notably Bran Maj, to divest from their corporate holdings upon taking office. However, following intense opposition from a coalition of Blue Dawn and the Civic Renewal Front, the bill was defeated and subsequently rewritten. The final version that passed into law was significantly watered down, focusing primarily on foreign assets and disclosure rather than divestment.

Background

The “Oligarch Problem”

By 2013, the integration of high-level business interests and political power in Kresimiria had become a major public issue. The primary focus of this scrutiny was Bran Maj, the Senator for District III and owner of Maj Holdings, a conglomerate controlling roughly 30% of the national economy.

Northern Power, representing the poorer northern districts of Severnivaraje and Viskogorje, argued that Maj was using his seat in the Assembly to block labor reforms and secure favorable regulations for his steel and logistics empires.

The Rise of Stov

Simultaneously, Ari Stov had assumed the leadership of Blue Dawn in 2013. Stov was the founder of YakaSys, the tech giant poised to receive the lucrative government contract for the KresiX operating system. Although Stov had formally stepped down as CEO, he retained significant influence and indirect financial ties to the company.

The Original Proposal (The Iric Bill)

In August 2013, Syv Iric introduced the Senatorial Divestment Bill. The legislation proposed radical changes to Kresimirian political ethics:

• Mandatory Divestment: Any Senator holding more than a 5% stake in a company valued over ₭10 million would be required to place their assets in a blind trust or sell them.
• Contract Ban: Companies associated with sitting Senators would be barred from bidding on federal contracts from the Federal Councils.

Parliamentary Defeat

The bill faced immediate and overwhelming opposition in the Assembly.

• Blue Dawn: Led by Ari Stov, a faction within the party argued that the bill punished success and would deter “capable men of industry” from serving the Republic. Privately, Stov viewed the “Contract Ban” as a direct threat to the pending KresiX deal with YakaSys.
• Civic Renewal Front: Despite Volansky’s historic opposition to corruption, the CRF under Boj Volansky voted mostly against the bill. Volansky argued that forced divestment was an infringement on private property rights and that the voters, not the state, should decide if a conflict of interest mattered. (Critics noted that Volansky’s CRF had historically received funding from Bran Maj in the 1990s).
• Bran Maj voted against it, but failed to convince his Vjetrusa colleague Viktor Durak, causing internal conflict in the party.
• The two Moraviski senators opposed the bill, on the notion that the Assembly would begin classifying organisations like the Bosken Heritage Foundation and similar as ‘companies’, and use this as an excuse to crack down on Moraviski self-governance.

The bill failed, receiving only 8 votes.

The Revised Act

Following the defeat, Iric sought a compromise to save face and pass some form of anti-corruption measure. Working with the Assembly’s legal committee, the bill was rewritten to remove all clauses regarding domestic divestment.

The new Public Integrity Act focused instead on “Foreign Influence.” Its provisions included:

• Foreign Asset Cap: Senators were prohibited from holding more than 10% equity in companies domiciled outside of Kresimiria.
• Disclosure: Senators were required to publicly list their business interests in the Federal Archive (but were not required to sell them).
• Foreign Contracts: A ban on Senators personally signing contracts with foreign governments.

Passage

The revised bill was acceptable to the establishment. It posed no threat to Bran Maj (whose assets were domestic) or Ari Stov (whose interests were in state contracts). It passed on November 18, 2013, with a vote of 17–1. The only opposing votes came from the BLF (who abstained in protest) and hardliners within the CRF who opposed any regulation.

Legacy and Criticism

The 2013 Act is widely regarded by political analysts as a failure of reform.

• The “Paper Shield”: Reform advocates argue the law actually protected oligarchs by giving them a veneer of legitimacy. Since they complied with the disclosure rules, they could claim to be “fully transparent” while continuing to legislate in their own favor.
• The YakaSys Loophole: Because the act removed the ban on government contracts for associated companies, it cleared the path for the Council for Development to award the massive KresiX contract to YakaSys later that year, a move that would have been illegal under Iric’s original proposal.

Syv Iric later described the passing of the watered-down bill as “the greatest regret of my legislative career,” admitting that he had allowed the Assembly to “perform a magic trick: making corruption legal by calling it ‘integrity’.”