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.