SO 2017-28 Disclosures Act

WHEREAS maintaining the integrity of the Union is a vital task of the regional administration;
WHEREAS as such it is necessary that the regional administration have available such tools as would make that task easier;
BE IT ENACTED by the President of the Union, by and with the advice and consent of the Senators of the Union, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Part I: Disclosures
Article 1
Before announcing a candidacy for a Union position, before being appointed to such a position, before voting in any poll in the region or on the Union’s forum, or before otherwise actively and substantially participating in regional activities such as roleplay, all nations with multiple nations in the region must disclose to the Founder their main nation in the region, their other nation or nations in the region (puppet(s)), and any associated forum accounts.

Article 2
If such a disclosure has already been made to the incumbent Founder, it does not need to be repeated unless the Founder asks for it, or unless there has been a change in the information provided in the latest disclosure.

Article 3
The court may find a nation guilty of the misdemeanor of Non-Disclosure, if that court finds that the nation in question has not made such a disclosure as per Article 1 of this Act when one was required by that Article 1 and not exempted by Article 2. That misdemeanor must be punished at least by a Written Warning and at most by a Forum Ban not to exceed twenty-four (24) hours.

Article 4
Likewise, before announcing a candidacy for a Union position, before being appointed to such a position, before voting in any poll in the region or on the Union’s forum, or before otherwise actively and substantially participating in regional activities such as roleplay, all nations who are aware that they have had previous contact - whether on the internet or in person - with another Union member or with others Union members, they must disclose such previous connection(s) to the Founder referring to at least one of the member’s nations’ names.

Article 5
If such a disclosure has already been made to the incumbent Founder, it does not need to be repeated unless the Founder requests it, or unless there has been a change in the information provided in the latest disclosure, or unless the nation in question has discovered a new previous connection in the region that they had not yet been aware of.

Article 5
The court may find a nation guilty of the misdemeanor of Non-Disclosure, if that court finds that the nation in question has not made such a disclosure as per Article 4 of this Act when one was required by that Article 4 and not exempted by Article 5. That misdemeanor must be punished at least by at least a Written Warning and at most by a Forum Ban not to exceed twenty-four (24) hours.

Article 6
Disclosures as outlined in this Act may be made either on the Regional Message Board (RMB) or by NationStates telegram to the incumbent Founder.

Article 7
The Founder is requested to, to what extent is possible, clearly display on the World Factbook Entry (WFE) a concise message explaining the necessity of disclosing any puppets or previous connection(s) in the circumstances outlined in Articles 1 and 4 of this Act. Such a message must also figure in the welcome telegram, to be recomposed to reflect this within 72 hours of the passage of this Act.

Article 8
For all officials in the Government or Legislature at the time of assent of this Document, they shall each have seven days from the time of the assent of this Document to make the disclosures outlined in this Act before it will be considered Non-Disclosure.

Part II: Union Puppets and Connections Database
Article 9
There shall be a Union Puppets and Connections Database (UPCD), maintained by the Founder, which shall be public to the members of the Union.

Article 10
The UPCD shall be a list of all the members of the Union, and of their disclosed puppets, and of their disclosed connections.

Article 11
The Founder, when assisting the MoJ in investigations, may consult the UPCD in order to advance such investigations in ways that he sees fit, and such evidence as obtained through it may be used in court.

April 21, 2017
The Hon. Abdoa, MP (Speaker p.t.) LSM GSM
The Rt. Hon. Libertarian Democracy, MP MoD LSM GSM

I do support this bill as it will permit more government transparency. However, I, of course, have a few suggestions:

1) Article 7: The WFE has a character limit. As such, I do recommend that the warning be placed visibly at the top of the On Elections and Appointments dispatch.

2) Add this as Part I Article 8: "For all officials in the Government or Legislature at the time of assent of this Document, they shall each have seven days to disclose all puppets residing within the region before it will be considered Non-Disclosure." The purpose of this being that as the bill is currently worded, current members of the Government or Legislature are not required to disclose until their next election.

1) I know about the character limit, but since disclosure is also required before serious RP, I really want it to be obvious. And since we stopped using the long names for nations in government, I think there is enough extra space left for a very short announcement. Also, the dispatch referred to isn't actually regulated by law, so we'd have to establish in this Act, which is rather off-topic. I will edit the bill saying the notice has to be in the welcome TG, and in any case we, as active citizens, will have to do our bit anyways reminding the invested newcomers. And the language currently in the bill says "requested", so if the Founder can't, he can't.
2) Thank you, i was going to put somethibg like that in, but it slipped my mind. Will edit the bill to that effect.

By the way, was that a co-sponsor?

I now do co-sponsor this proposal. However, one slight change must be made before this bill reaches the debate stage, and that is in Part I, Article 8.

"they shall each have seven days to make the disclosures"
should be replaced with:
"they shall each have seven days from the time of the assent of this Document to make the disclosures"

I know that the date was already referenced earlier in that clause, but it was listed in the condition and not the effect. To make the effect as specific as possible, the above changes should be implemented.