On 2 May, 2019, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel hosted a roundtable discussion on anti-corruption policy organised on the initiative of the Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy (EECMD), the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and the Public Journalism Club NGO initiative. Mariam Zadoyan and Narek Yenokyan, experts from the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, participated in the meeting as well.
During the meeting the post-Soviet anti-corruption reforms in the post-Soviet countries were discussed. A reference was made to the reform of the Georgian judicial system and the Ukrainian anti-corruption courts. International experts also spoke on Ukraine’s open data and electronic declaration system, the reform of the police system in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the state funding of political parties in the Ukraine.
During the meeting, the future vision of the fight against corruption in Armenia and efforts to ensure the ongoing democratisation process were discussed. The participants touched upon the steps to effectively fight corruption by maintaining the principles of accountability and transparency by the state bodies.
During the meeting, Ms Mariam Zadoyan, expert of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, presented the vision of the coalition on the fight against corruption in Armenia. In particular, she mentioned that the anti-corruption strategy of the Republic of Armenia should be adopted based on exclusive public consent, which will be based on three main pillars of the fight against corruption. In order to implement the anti-corruption strategy and the vision and mission to be set up by this strategy, it is necessary to build a sovereign anti-corruption institutional Armenian system, consisting of an independent anti-corruption professional body, a specialised prosecutor’s structure, and a specialised court for corruption cases. Referring to the independent anti-corruption professional body, the expert noted that the body should develop and implement the country’s anti-corruption policy, deal with prevention of corruption, carry out operative intelligence and investigative activities, which will exclude inter-agency unhealthy competition which destroys statehood. Mariam Zadoyan also considered the imperative of the day a necessity of introducing the anonymous whistleblowers platform and raising corruption risks in the private sector, mainly creating a Beneficial Ownership Register and foreseeing criminal liability for legal persons.
