Private Intelligence Officers can support Businesses

“The Private intelligence officers can assist to the development of business: in particular, introduction of this institute can be considered as a means to overcome corruption in the business sector,” Miss Mariam Zadoyan, Lawyer of the “Evidence-based Advocacy for Reform” project said today at a seminar on the introduction of the new institute. The event was organized in the scope of the “Evidence-based Advocacy for Reform” project, which is implemented by the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE), Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) and European Business Association (EBA) with financial support of the German International Cooperation (GIZ). M. Zadoyan noted that the institute of private investigators, private intelligence agencies have been established in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Russia and many other countries of the world as a result of the reaction of the government to the urgent social challenges that it once faced. Presenting the international experience, she noted that intelligence services provide substantial support to economic entities to determine the reputation and financial status of their debtors and other partners and to determine their ability to actually fulfill their financial obligations. Due to the aforementioned, signing of transactions that include risks, as well as overcoming situations of avoidance of debtors to pay debts are substantially prevented Representatives of concerned state structures such as the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Justice, and the police were also present at the event. The latter, in general, were for the introduction of such an institution, but presented some risks that need to be taken into consideration for introducing a new system. Arkadi Sahakyan, the Lawyer of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises presented the bizprotect.am website, which provides an opportunity to report the problems that hinder the development of business, after which the specialists study the application and respond quickly to it. It is possible also to inform about a problem anonymously. The website creators, taking into consideration the international standards and experience, also have taken care that no one (including law enforcement agencies) could identify the reporting person. The mobile application bizprotect.am or bizpashtpan.am was created as well, which helps to report on a problem faster. The application allows not only sending of text information, but also the photos and documents.