The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, the second meeting of the Anticorruption Council was held today in the Office of Government, attended by political forces, civil society and representatives of international organizations.

The Council first took note of the status of the assignments issued at the first meeting. It was reported that during this period, the Government endorsed the national anticorruption program, and approved an arrangement with the USAID “On promoting implementation of the program of Armenia’s anti-corruption strategy,” which is to be signed soon.

Steps are underway join the process of extractive industries transparency initiative, creating a platform for cooperation with the business community and so on. Whereas the Government has already accepted to sign a relevant arrangement with USAID, the Prime Minister ordered the Government Staff to continue with the ongoing effective cooperation with the USAID and have the instrument signed by early 2016 in order to proceed with the formation of the Expert Committee.

Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan introduced the finalized draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences and the Law on Public Service of the Republic of Armenia.

The amendment implies a warning for high-ranking public officials’ failure to submit a declaration on their property, income and related persons. A fine to the amount of 200-fold of the minimum wage will be applied, should they fail to submit a declaration within 30 days of the warning.

In case of failure to return within the next 60 days, a fine will be imposed in the amount of 1000 times the amount of the minimum wage, and the person will be deemed to be not submitted income tax return. A fine of 200 to 400 times the amount of the minimum wage is envisaged in the event when the declaration contains errors, or provides incomplete data. The Ethics Commission is the authority to impose fines to that effect. The Council approved the package of amendments.

The Prime Minister instructed the Minister of Justice to finalize the draft laws “On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Armenia” and “On Public Service,” circulate them in the prescribed manner and report back to the Office of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan reported on the activities carried out in 2015 and the ones planned for 2015-2016 in the field of education within the framework of the program of activities of the Anticorruption Strategy in the Republic of Armenia in 2015-2018. In particular, it was reported that with the participation of international experts a two-year program entitled “Strengthening discipline and fight against corruption in higher education in Armenia” has been implemented since February 2015 in the field of higher education, which aims to improve the legal and institutional systems sector. As part of the program, the coordinating commission will hold a planned working meeting in January, 2016.

During the next year, the Ministry of Education and Science will develop a strategic plan referred to as “Strengthening of discipline and fight against corruption in the education sector of Armenia.” The Council of Europe experts will provide guidelines for the development of the rules of ethics.

In order to reduce corruption risks in the field of general education, under the Transparency International Anti-corruption Center’s “Demanding society for responsible governance” program there was launched a one-year program entitled “Assessment of corruption risks in the education sphere of Armenia,” in October, 2015, which seeks to study, identify and assess the risks of corruption in the field of secondary education in terms of teaching quality schools, inclusive education, development and printing of textbooks.

The working group established to plan the budget provided in a comprehensive educational services and to ensure transparency and accountability of financial expenses, developed and approved the procedure for the annual budget planning and reporting annual expenditures of secondary schools in 2015.The procedure was sent to secondary schools for as a pilot project for application in the 2015-2016 academic year. The procedure will be finalized and introduced, if necessary.

To raise the students legal awareness (including with regard to the fight against corruption), the general education programs will be revised in 2016-2019. It plans to review all education programs.

Stressing the importance of reducing corruption risks in education, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan instructed the Ministry of Education and Science to complete the risk assessment study within two months, discuss the findings with the concerned authorities, and submit to the Government a program to combat corruption in the education sector with the relevant activities.

The meeting took note of the progress in cooperation with NGOs and international organizations in the fight against corruption. Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan noted that a series of steps had been taken in this area. In particular, with the support of the Ministry of Justice, the Association of Young Lawyers of Armenia, the Information Freedom Center NGO and the OSCE Yerevan Office, the establishment of the State-Civil Society anti-corruption platform was announced in September.

The Minister said that the State is prepared to cooperate with all public organizations in the framework of this platform. The subject of discussion should be the issues of implementation of anti-corruption strategy and its program of activities for 2015-2018. Close cooperation is underway with a number of international organizations over various programs in the field of anti-corruption.

The Prime Minister instructed the Minister-Chief of Government Staff and the Minister of Justice to continue cooperating with civil society and international organizations and inform the Office of the Government of all anti-corruption programs in order to ensure a more effective implementation of the anti-corruption strategy and avoid the double funding of the program.

The Council was briefed on Armenia’s compliance with its international obligations assumed in the field of the fight against corruption in 2015. Deputy Justice Minister Suren Krmoyan said that in the fight against corruption the Republic of Armenia has been cooperating with the EU and the Council of Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the UN Secretariat for the Fight against Corruption and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Council of Europe Group of States Combating Corruption and the Commission on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing. It was emphasized that the Republic of Armenia is fulfilling all the obligations undertaken in the international arena successfully and in a timely manner.

In this regard, the Premier once again stressed that it is crucial for Armenia to comply with all of its international commitments in the fight against corruption. Hovik Abrahamyan instructed the heads of executive bodies to take the necessary steps to provide for strict implementation of international obligations in this area.

The meeting took note of the report entitled “The private sector and the fight against corruption,” submitted by Head of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center NGO Khachik Harutyunyan.

“As it was announced at the first meeting of the Council, ensuring Armenia’s economic development is the most important task. Accordingly, I had instructed at the previous meeting to pay special attention to the cooperation with the business sphere in the fight against corruption. I have been informed that the Ministry of Justice has implemented a number of important activities after the first meeting of the Council in a bid to reduce corruption in the private sector. The program of actions of the anti-corruption strategy features a number of measures aimed at simplifying public administration,” Hovik Abrahamyan said.

The Prime Minister instructed the Economy, Finance and Justice Ministries and the National Center for Legislative Regulation PIU of the Office of Government to continue submitting proposals on simplification of public administration. Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the need to assess risks and implement necessary measures in the field of revenue collection as shortly as possible.

In conclusion, the Council discussed the report on the system of efficient, transparent and involvement of management at the regional and municipal levels. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and the Emergency Situations Vache Terteryan noted that communities have successfully implemented a program of introduction of electronic control systems, which is aimed at ensuring the transparency of operations, reducing administration and maintenance of public activity. In process are a number of programs for introduction of citizen service centers in communities and several other programs.

Hovik Abrahamyan noted the importance of anti-corruption activities at the provincial and municipal levels aimed at ensuring efficiency, transparency and participation.

“In this context, I attach importance of the implementation of e-democracy tools, as well as the active cooperation of public organizations. Therefore I suggest that NGOs should actively cooperate with regional and municipal authorities in the fight against corruption,” the Prime Minister said instructed the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Emergency Preparedness to study the international experience and possibly expand the range of tools, increase the number of beneficiary communities.

Summing up the meeting, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of more active participation and involvement of representatives of political forces and civil society in the proceedings of the Council to make the work of the Council more effective. Hovik Abrahamyan expressed readiness to discuss and implement together any reasonable proposals and initiative.