Friday, 28 October 2005
Today the RA Anti-Corruption Council has held a meeting presided at by Council Chairman, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan.
Among the questions included in the agenda in accordance with the tasks set at the previous meeting, the Council heard and took notice of the report by Head of RA State Tax Service Felix Tsolakyan on the implementation of government's anti-corruption strategy and relevant program of action. He also briefed the meeting on Armenia's performance with regard to the obligations assumed under international conventions and agreements relevant to the State Tax Service. Then the meeting heard the report of Chairman of State Customs Committee Armen Avetisyan on the implementation of government's anti-corruption strategy and relevant program of action. He informed those present on Armenia's performance with respect to the obligations assumed under international conventions and agreements relevant to the State Customs Committee.
On the first question, the head of the State Tax Service reported that according to Government Decree Ref. 1522-I dated November, 6, 2003 "On Adoption of Anticorruption Strategy and Program of Action" the STS had drawn up the inventory of privileges applicable in accordance with the tax laws and subsequently submitted to RA Ministry of Finance and Economy, a draft law had been developed on natural persons' property and income declaration which was approved by the National Assembly in the first reading. The STS had met its commitment of submitting a proposal on the amendments to RA law on tax services, the amended version of which is effective as of January, 2004. The speaker has informed that the bill on the amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia had already been presented for Government's consideration and was in stage of finalization with the draft amendments to the criminal procedure code and the law bankruptcy awaiting approval on the part of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. Mr. Felix Tsolakyan has informed in detail the improvement of RA Tax Service's technical refurbishment and the work performed by the control department of the Service and the steps made towards the respect of publicity and overall efficiency.
In connection with the question of natural persons' income and property declaration, it was recommended to accelerate the process and subject the program to preliminary testing before its definitive application.
On the next question of the agenda, the Chairman of State Customs Committee reported that the anticorruption strategy had been realized on several directions. He touched the details of the technical refurbishment of customs houses with the purpose of increasing the efficiency of customs control, introducing a communication network between customs houses. He also spoke of the work which was underway towards the respect of publicity in customs clearance procedures. Mr. Avetisyan informed that during 2004 in customs houses began the introduction of self-declaring (independent filling of customs declaration) for the persons realizing intermediary customs services, and also for some participants of foreign trade activities. According to the report, work was being done in the direction of perfectioning the customs legislation, including the minimization of corruption risks. In particular, in December 2004, the National Assembly adopted the amendments of the customs code and the law on customs service as proposed by the Customs Service and approved by the Government.
To ensure the publicity of the reports presented to the Council, the Prime Minister instructed to make them and the previous ones available on an official website of GoA.
In accordance with the presidential decree of June, 1, 2004 on the establishment of anticorruption council, the meeting, on the basis of rotation, introduced changes in the structure of delegates from civil society organizations represented in the Commission on monitoring of the implementation of anticorruption strategy as proposed by parliamentary groups and factions.
