The Ragoth Plan: Forums and Government

Day 860, 16:12 • Published in Belgium Belgium • by Ragoth

Yesterday I told you about my abstract and ephemeral ideas for how we improve Belgium, today we get down to brass tacks:
We must organize our government better if we want to play smart and get things done, today's article deals with how I would restructure the government of eBelgium. But first, We must redesign the eBelgian forums if we can not communicate with each other, we can not actually get anything done, the current design is a mess a couple problems I my self have experienced include: topics wandering extreamly far off topic and then grown tired of with out the original issue settled and extreamly important topics brought up in random places so that unless you check every single thread everywhere you are liable to miss something critical.

First off, I think we need to also make sure we have more active moderation Apotygma does a damn fine job, but he is only one man, he needs help. For the forum it's self We would get rid of the tread congress debate area, it would be replaced with topics dived up by ministries and sub topics by directorate. Thus you would have a debate area for say, Home Affairs, Foreign affairs etc. If you want to discuss say, our relations with the Netherlands you do so in the embassy sub forum of the Forign Affairs topic, and if the topic wanders to say state subsedies for companies, those posts get moved to the State Companies part of the Home Affairs area.

I would also like to streamline the process for turning bills into laws. I would not only like congress to authorize the Treasury Minister to pay recuring fees like (like the SOL war game fee) with out having to deal with reauthorization each month, but I would also like to add in a Bill proposal topic. In this topic the only threads allowed are those proposing a specific bill, the only replies allowed are seconds to said bill, debate would be done in the committee or sub-committee sub-forum. Once a bill has 5 seconds then voting would imidiatly start if it is a non in game issue and last a period of 48 hours 24 of which have to be non-weekend or until 1/2+1 congress members have voted yes or no, which ever comes first, if it is an issue covered by the in game voting mechinism after 5 congress members second it the president is obligated to propose it in game within 24 hours.



The Government!

The current system is made up confusing mish-mash of overlapping titles with ill-defined responsibilities the following is how I plan on setting up my government if you elect me and how I would like to rearrange the government to make it work better. The rest of this article deals with an outline of how the government would function, and my vision of what the current Deputy Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition would be. Over the next few days I will be unvieling the rest of the Ministries.

A minister would be a member of Congress in charge of a ministry or of a Federal Public Service , Directorates General would be run by directors who while it would be prefered if they were congress members it is not mandatory. If a Ministry had 3 Directorates General that does not mean it must have a staff of 4, the perpose of the subdivisions is to make the Ministries more modular, so that the differnt jobs can be deligated easier and we can see more exactly what is and what is not getting done, for instance the Minister of Communications would also be the director of either Dutch or French, the deputy prime minister can also be in change of a Ministry or Directorate if needed. Ministers would be in charge of the the Directors underthem and not only responsible for making sure they fulfill their responsibilities but also in nominating the director positions underneath them. Ministers must make a weekly report on topics specific to their ministry. They may deligate parts of it to their subordinates but it is the minister's responsibility that it be written and they are to blame if a director does not publish on time. The first report due at the end of the first week includes additional requirements that are not required on subsequent weeks. Weekly reports are due Monday by whenever I sign on usually (between noon and 2pm Brussels time depending on which job I have to go to/how much I drank the night before) and unless specified as private must be published in a newspaper, based in Belgium and written in whatever language the Minister speaks most fluently, they may not contain any images not directly related to the report. Reports marked private are to be posted to the private congress viewable only part of the eBelgium forum or for reports marked black pm'd to me personally.

The requirements for a minster or director is to be a resident of Belgium with no obligations to any other nation i.e. member of their armed forces or government. Additionally a Minister is required to be a member of Congress. The obligations requirement can be waved for directors with a majority vote of Congress. Ministers serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister with congressional confidence and directors at the pleasure of their minister and the prime minister with congressional confidence. Congress may force the Prime Minister to fire a Minister or for a Minister to fire a director with a majority vote. The two exceptions are the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor. The Chancellor serving purely at the pleasure of the President and the Shadow Chancellor being ex officio.



FPS Chancellery:
Duties: anything I ask of you, and anything I forgot to do. More or less make sure things are running smoothly, remind me to do anythings I have forgotten, back me up, and help me get done what I need to get done, get the constitutional amendment with the changes I want passed so you can get a title bump. Also since my g/f is really against my eRep habit, you may have to make a quick decision or two if I'm having a lovely Saturday at her house.

Ideally a citizen with at least moderate experience, and high activity.

Deputy Chancellor For Legislative Affairs:
Duties: Make sure that congress runs smoothly, bills are passed correctly, and that that my agenda is implemented.

Does not necessarily need to be experienced, but open minded, competent, and active are a must.

Shadow Chancellery
Qualifications: Highest ranking member of the opposition party not in government.
Duties: Tell me how I am failing as a president and how his or her party would be far more awsome at being President.

A good Shadow Chancellery keeps the President honest, makes sure we do not drop the ball, and most importantly, makes sure we never take the easy way out.
---
Love, Ragoth
eBelgian
Congress Member For Wallonia
Party President of Res Belgica
Your Next President
----
Tomorrow: Details