Alessandro Zanotta, Economic Governance and Public Administration Reforms Adviser at the EU Delegation to Armenia, noted at the anti-corruption event organized in Vanadzor on 29 July that the current anti-corruption platform of cooperation between civil society organisations and the government is the best format to achieve results in Armenia and if successful other countries will learn from this experience. “You must find solutions together, Armenian institutions and civil society, being inspired by innovative and IT-intensive models that are available in Europe such as in Estonia. This is the right format. And I am sure that Armenia can serve as an example for other countries if the fight against corruption is led efficiently here and shows concrete results”, said Mr. Zanotta.
President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, Coordinator of the Secretariat of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition Karen Zadoyan presented the most important achievements. Specifically currently, on the instruction of the RA Prime Minister, the draft laws on the establishment of universal independent anti-corruption body and decriminalization of the illicit enrichment are being elaborated based on the recommendations of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
K. Zadoyan noted that at the next session of anti-corruption session, it is scheduled to discuss the corruption issues that exist in business sector including the same issues in taxation and customs spheres. It is also planned to present the recommendations of primary importance that were discussed and voiced by the ALA during the discussions of Government-Business-CSOs format, to start the reforms in the spheres.
Notably, on 29 July, the results of the “Identification of Corruption Risks in Customs Clearance of Imported Cars to Armenia” project were summarized. The project was implemented in the scope of a small sub-grant allocated in the framework of the “Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” project implemented by the Armenian Young Lawyers Association and partner Freedom of Information Center with funds provided by the EU and co-funding of OSCE Office in Yerevan.