Friday, 7 September 2007
Today RA Council on Fight against Corruption has met, presided at by council chairman, RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.
The Council has discussed the concept note on the development of Armenia
's new anti-corruption strategy and the question of establishing an expert task force to coordinate the preparative work, the compliance with the guarantees presented to the Republic of Armenia by the GRECO, as well as the human composition of the anti-corruption strategy monitoring commission (ASMC).Concerning agenda item 1, ASMC Chair, Adviser to RA President Gevorg Mheryan informed that according to the official reports submitted by the ASMC and the proceedings of the RA Council on Fight against Corruption, the anti-corruption strategy and the action plan have actually been carried into effect and there is a need of drafting a new strategy. Such necessity is also caused by the fact that in effort to join the European Union, Armenia has acceded to a number of corruption-countering international organizations, facilitating thereby the development of an updated and more comprehensive anti-corruption strategy. Besides, our past experience of drafting and implementing anti-corruption and poverty reduction strategies will allow us to provide for better coordination of future activities. The speaker noted that the development of a new anti-corruption strategy is stipulated as a priority in the 2007 Government Program. Then Mr. Mheryan outlined those principles which, according to him, may give birth to a paper acceptable to both the government and the civil society. Among these principles, he mentioned the provision of all conditions necessary for the fulfillment of the obligations assumed under international treaties (conventions), the definition of benchmarks for lowering corruption and the ways to meeting them, the availability of flexible systems for strategy monitoring and implementation. A special emphasis was placed upon the involvement of the civil society in these processes. Proceeding from the above, it was suggested to begin the development of the new strategic plan with the drafting of its terms of reference. Based on the decision of the RA Council on Fight against Corruption, the ASMC was entrusted with the powers envisaged for the strategy development task force which is supposed to engage the representatives of the CBA, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Office of Prosecutor General, the Chamber of Control.
As Mr. Mheryan said, the first working version of the commission-drafted program will be submitted for Council consideration as followed by the stage of public discussions held both with expert structures and the representatives of international organizations.
More substantiated versions will be available to RA ministries and agencies. The final version of the program, as endorsed by the Council, will be sent to the Government for approval.
With reference to agenda item 2, it was reported that Armenia was presented with 24 proposals (recommendations) during the Strasbourg, March, 2005 plenary session of the GRECO in the frame of the first- and second-stage assessments. The RA Council on Fight against Corruption has passed an action plan in support of the guarantees provided on the part of the GRECO assessment commission, which specifies the deadlines and the officials in responsibility. The above-mentioned entities were said to have been reporting back on a regular basis. According to these reports, 10 recommendations have already been addressed in full, 7 recommendations
