Commission for Prevention of Corruption to be established in Armenia
ArmInfo.The Commission for Prevention of Corruption to be established in Armenia. The
corresponding amendments to the law "on a body for prevention of corruption" are discussed during extraordinary meeting of the Armenian Parliament on June 7, by the first reading.
According to one of the authors of the presented package, the vice
speaker of Parliament Arpine Hovhannisyan, the new commission will be
created on the basis of Commission for ethics of officials. The new
commission will be created in accordance with international
conventions, ratified in Armenia. A body is planned to create,
implementing function of preventing corruption, including compliance
with ethical requirements, clash of interests, incompatibility and
other restrictions applied to officials and civil servants, the
implementation of systems for declaring assets, income and interests,
increasing public awareness. The body will possess the right of
sanctions. Besides, in case of violation of requirements of
declarations, the body will immediately use sanctions.
The list of figures obliged to apply the declarations expands as well
- from current 500 officials to 2.700 persons. Moreover, the process
of connecting this category of persons to the system of declaring
income and property will occur in stages. All the prosecutors,
investigators, heads of penitentiary institutions and compulsory
executors of judicial acts, as well as persons engaged in public
procurement will be included in the list. The body is planned to
start activities after April 2018.
Hovhannisyan emphasized that it is also planned to introduce an alert
institutions. In particular, a single digital platform will be
created which will allow the citizens to inform the state bodies
about corruption risks anonymously.
To recall, in 2015, by the initiative of the former prime minister
Hovik Abtahamyan, Council on corruption fight was created, which was
headed by the prime minister himself. In the opinion of observers,
the Council, like the previously created similar structures, did not
act in accordance with the declared goal, but was more ostentatious
in nature. As evidence of this, the Council's inadequate response to
press reports on the facts of corruption, as well as the fact that
the commission consisted of individuals who themselves had to be
checked for involvement in corruption, including the former head of
the Armenian government.