A move is afoot to award MNT 20 million to the initiator of each “successful” law, possibly meaning one that is approved without much dissent. This means people will be paid extra for doing what they are paid to do.

It is very likely that MPs or other initiators will hire good lawyers as advisers and share the spoils with them. However, the lawyer will remain in the background while the initiator gets the praise. Even if the lawyer claims most of the money, the MP alone will have the fame. This way of getting flawless laws reminds one of the old saying, “The sheep is alive but the wolf is full.”

Sh.Saikhansambuu’s draft law to make amendments to the Criminal Law, D.Zagdjav’s limited casino law draft may become among the first to take the MNT 20 million as famous lawyers actually worked on them. Since Parliament agreed to spend billions on goats, there can be nothing wrong in spending some money on good laws.

But what happens to the numerous bad laws? The end of Parliament’s Autumn session saw MPs trying to include over 200 draft laws in the agenda for the Spring session. They were unhappy with the Speaker’s choice of only 28 drafts. Can it be that the lure of the MNT 20 million has suddenly made our MPs so active?

MPs may prefer to take the credit for owning a winning horse that was trained by others but how much better would it be if they were the actual trainers? It is also not impossible that the new procedure will lead to MPs offering bribes to get their bad drafts approved without debate and claim the award.