The Office of the President and
the Standing Committee on the Budget organized a discussion on “Increasing
local authority with citizens’ participation” at Government House on May 27,
with the head of the committee, P.Khayankhyarvaa, in the chair. Among those who
took part in the forum were Deputy Speaker G.Batkhuu, MPs Ch.Ulaan and
R.Gonchigdorj, Advisor of the President L.Dashdorj, Director of Center for
Research on Direct Democracy of Switzerland, Dr. Andreas Auer, and Dr. Thomas
Fisterer.

The forum held two panel
sessions, on “Transparency of budget and citizens’ participation” and
“Citizens’ participation in legislation”. Later, an open discussion reviewed
the opinions expressed in the panels and prepared recommendations based on them.
The consensus was that direct democracy should be strengthened at the level of
the local administrations and clear guidelines should be issued on transparency
of the budget.