A working meeting on the “Draft Anti-Corruption Strategy of the RA for 2019-2023 and its Implementation Action Plan” was held on 07.06.2019 in the RA Ministry of Justice. The meeting was chaired by RA Deputy Minister of Justice Tigran Khachikyan. Representatives of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia Ms Susanne Soghomonyan, Board Member of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and Ms Mariam Zadoyan, Anti-Corruption Programs Manager, as well as representatives from other NGOs and the ministry participated in the meeting.
During the working meeting, Deputy Minister Khachikyan presented to the participants the draft anti-corruption strategy, where the anti-corruption institutional system and other issues were addressed as well. The draft strategy will be presented publicly in the near future. The representatives of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia expressed their concern over the choice of the anti-corruption institutional model that the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia has adopted, namely the creation of separate anti-corruption law enforcement and prevention bodies. In this regard, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia express their concern that the government has not come to the concord related the issue of the anti-corruption institutional body and proposes an option that is not knowledgeable and reasoned, and in addition it does not stem from the context of Armenia, nor does it express the existing reality and needs of Armenia. And thus the ALA and CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia reaffirm their stance on the necessity of having a universal anti-corruption body with law enforcement, corruption prevention and anti-corruption education functions, which will definitely become a reality through our collective efforts. The more detailed opinion of the association on the models of the anti-corruption bodies is expressed in the “Brief Summary on the Introduction of the Anti-Corruption Institutional System”, which the Association has developed.
Notably, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia presented more than 100 proposals on the previous version of the draft anti-corruption strategy. The majority of them are included in the draft, including the creation of an anti-corruption specialized court, the establishment of a separate subdivision of prosecutorial supervision over corruption offenses, the establishment of a register of beneficial owners, establishment of management systems (registry) within the framework of restoration of the stolen assets, instituting criminal liability for legal persons, implementing an anti-corruption strategy on the local government level, introduction of anti-corruption compliance in businesses, etc.
Photo from the website of the Ministry of Justice: http://www.moj.am/article/2389