233
The offices
There are five oversight offices, and no organ may invent powers for them.
Register › Official summary › Title IX
Oversight Offices And The Limits Of Power
Articles 233 to 267 · 35 articles · 7 chapters · read the full text
Chapter 1 · Common Provisions
234
Independence
The offices are independent, and nobody may instruct them or edit a report.
235
Appointment by lot
Each office is led by a college of five drawn by lot in public session.
236
Pools
Pools are public registers open to anyone qualified, excluding politicians and enterprise managers.
237
Confirmation
The Judicial Council confirms those drawn, and may refuse only twice per vacancy.
238
Term, incompatibilities and status
Office holders serve one seven-year term, with the same provision as anyone else.
239
Removal
Only the Constitutional Court may remove them, and never for what they found.
240
Resources
Office resources cannot be cut during a term, or tied to their findings.
241
Powers of information
Offices may demand documents, data and testimony from anyone, and confidentiality is no excuse.
242
Publicity and reporting
Reports are published in full, and nobody sees them beforehand.
243
Protection of persons who assist
People who help an office are protected from any reprisal.
Chapter 2 · The Electoral Commission
244
Function
The Electoral Commission runs every election, referendum and recall, and every draw by lot.
245
Conduct of the ballot
National votes are on paper counted by hand, and local votes may use audited free software.
246
Registration and refusal
The Commission may never judge a list's ideology or its programme.
247
The Boundary Division
An independent division draws electoral boundaries in public, on published criteria.
248
Electoral disputes
Election disputes go to the Commission and then the Constitutional Court, free of charge.
Chapter 3 · The Audit Office
249
Function
The Audit Office checks how everyone used real resources, in physical and ecological units.
250
Powers
It may audit on its own initiative, or at the request of ten thousand residents.
251
Reports and consequences
Audit reports are public, and go to prosecutors when they disclose an offence.
Chapter 4 · The Defender of Rights
252
Function
The Defender of Rights takes complaints against anyone about any right in Title III.
253
Complaints and remedies
Complaints are free, in any language, and the Defender can go to court for you.
254
Division for data and automated systems
A division of the Defender polices data, and bans prohibited automated systems.
255
Inspection of places of detention
Another division inspects places of detention unannounced, and publishes what it finds.
Chapter 5 · The Commissioner for Future Generations
256
Function
The Commissioner for Future Generations represents people not yet born.
257
Powers
The Commissioner is heard in the Assembly and in the plan, and can sue.
258
Long-term impact statements
Bills, plans and long-lived projects have a published long-term impact statement.
Chapter 6 · The Office of Democratic Integrity
259
Function
The Office of Democratic Integrity monitors, verifies and refers, and holds no other power.
260
Declarations and integrity
It publishes officials' declarations, and investigates misuse of public resources.
261
Monitoring
It reports yearly on media concentration, participation, equality between territories and prohibited acts.
262
Referral
Its findings go to the Constitutional Court or to prosecutors, never to a sanction of its own.
263
Limits of the Office
It may never classify anyone by ideology, ban anything, or touch a candidacy.
Chapter 7 · Limits Upon Every Power
264
Purpose
The limits that follow bind every organ and every majority.
265
Acts void in every case
Seventeen acts are void whoever adopts them, including privatising the commons and mass surveillance.
266
Attainment by indirection
Reaching a prohibited result indirectly, or by a series of steps, is equally void.
267
Direction of development
The Republic must move toward wider participation and more free provision, never backwards.