Thursday, 14 December 2017
Karen Karapetyan: “We need to take steps to develop a new ambitious anticorruption strategy”
A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan. Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister issued a number of instructions.
The Premier’s first instruction was about the measures planned for 2018. “Three major events will take place in Armenia in 2018: the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia and the May battles, the 2800th anniversary of the foundation of Yerevan and the Francophone Summit in Yerevan in October. Organizational work is already underway,” Karen Karapetyan said.
Considering that in this regard, tourists’ visits are expected to Armenia, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministers of Territorial Administration and Development, Transport, Communication and Information Technologies, the State Committee for Urban Development, the State Tourism Committee, the Police, as well as the Yerevan and Gyumri Mayors to take joint measures within a 2-month period to improve entry and exit roads into and from Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor and other regional centers, propose new architectural and environmental solutions, highlighting the road sections from Zvartnots airport to Yerevan and Shirak airport to Gyumri, and report back the results.
The other instruction had to do with the results of the anticorruption strategy and the development of a new strategy. “Armenia's anticorruption strategy was adopted in 2015. During this period, a number of measures have been implemented on the government’s initiative aimed at combating and preventing corruption. Some measures are still in progress, but at this stage we need to take steps to develop a new, ambitious anticorruption strategy, which should include monitoring and assessment mechanisms,” the Head of Government said.
In view of the above, Karen Karapetyan instructed the heads of central executive agencies to finalize work on the relevant legislative packages and undertake measures to fulfill the existing anticorruption strategy within the predetermined time frames. Karen Karapetyan gave the responsible officials 30 days to develop proposals on the new anticorruption strategy and submit them to the Ministry of Justice. The Chief of Government Staff was instructed to complete work on the development of the four per-sector anticorruption monitoring and evaluation mechanisms within a 15-day period, as well as to summarize the results of the already envisaged and implemented actions and provide comprehensive information to the public at large.
The Prime Minister next instructed the Minister of Justice to take measures to develop a new, ambitious anticorruption strategy, identify new target areas, monitoring and evaluation standards, and specific measures aimed at preventing corruption and improving efficiency in investigation of corruption crimes. It has also been instructed to engage civil society representatives, entrepreneurs, law scholars and other stakeholders as much as possible in the strategy drafting activities.
The Premier’s third instruction was about the simplification of the process of land status change. To that end, the Prime Minister instructed to jointly develop and submit to the Government Staff proposals for clarifying the process of change of land status in communities and simplifying the administrative procedures within a 1-month period.
An appropriate decision has been made due to the need to address the problem of restricting access to non-State-registered drug procurement in Armenia. The decision provides that the Ministry of Healthcare should also include unregistered drugs in the procurement plan that have a Good Manufacturing Practice Certificate and WTO pre-qualification and (or) are registered in any one of EU-member States or in the United States or Japan. The mentioned procedure will streamline the State registration of medicines in the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which a number of medicines will be registered in the Republic of Armenia. The registration process will be carried out in a simple way, within 31 days instead of 150.
The Executive amended the procedure for elaborating, examining, coordinating, approving and modifying general plans and co-ordination spatial planning documents for communities in Armenia. As a result of the proposed amendment, the process of document coordination and the required time will be significantly reduced; the participation of interested bodies in that process will be more effective and meaningful.
The Cabinet approved by the Government's legislative initiative on the draft law “On amending the RA Law on Holidays and Commemoration Days.” The bill suggests that January 3, 4 and 5 should not be considered as pre-Christmas days. The amendment will be effective since January 1, 2018.
The meeting approved the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Rehabilitation Credit Bank for the Comprehensive Water Resources Management (IWRM) / Akhuryan River I (Program Phase 2) project, amounting to EUR 18,500,000.00 in the Loan Agreement BMZ-Nr.601266956 and the 2016 68 458 Grant Agreements between the Republic of Armenia, in the person of the Ministry of Finance, and the Rehabilitation Credit Bank KfW for the EUR 5,339,139.38-worth program of supporting the agricultural insurance scheme.
The Government made amendments and additions to a previous decision. Accordingly, foreign detainees or convicts whose close relatives can not visit them, as well as those detainees or convicts whose close relatives can not benefit from the facility of short interview, will be provided the possibility of making up to twenty minute-long video calls twice a month.
