In 2013 the so-called “kinship affair” (Verwandtenaffäre) shook the Bavarian parliament and triggered the revision of important legal provisions regarding Members of Parliament and led to implementing severe restrictions. Under the new law it has become imperative to present all bills, receipts and credentials related to assistant assignments, be they employment contracts, service contracts or special-order contracts. So far, the Landtag’s administrative branch manages the relevant funds. The requirements of disclosure and publication of non-gratuitous employment, investments held and donations that are a part of the legislative body’s rules of conduct have been tightened considerably. While the latter reform was modeled on the Bundestag’s rules, the prohibition of employing relatives up to the 4th degree of kinship puts the Bavarian parliament in an exceptional position. It in turn was the model that was followed by the German Bundestag when indexing the remuneration of the Members of Parliament. The affair unleashed severe and abundant, albeit in most cases poorly informed, criticism since it arose from a misunderstanding: In 2000 a grandfathering clause was introduced and remained in effect until the reforms in 2013. It stipulated that existing employment agreements between a Member of Parliament and one of his/her relatives (1st degree of kinship!) were excluded from the ban due to legitimate expectation. [ZParl, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 314 – 326]
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