The regulations on the possibility of submitting and verifying anonymous whistleblowing and providing with measures protection in case of revealing the identity of anonymous whistleblowers in Armenia in general meet the international standards.
Anti-Corruption Expert Mariam Zadoyan said this in an interview with Iravaban.net.
At the same time, the possibility of submitting anonymous reports is provided only through the unified electronic whistleblowing platform, as a result of which such an opportunity is not provided for reporting through other internal and external channels.
According to her, from the point of view of security guarantees of such platforms, it is important to ensure the access of the latter to a minimum number of subjects and the exclusion of access for any third party, aimed at preventing unauthorized access to the identity of the whistleblower and the content of his report and minimizing the risk of leaks or accidental disclosures. And also maintenance of the software support of the platform by a company with state participation to reduce to minimum the risk of being driven by commercial interests, more relaxed standards of transparency and information security.
“Meanwhile, contrary to the existing regulations providing access to the platform exclusively by the General Prosecutor’s Office of RA, at the level of drafts, it is proposed to expand the access to the platform by including the HRD as well. In addition, the software of the platform in the RA is provided by a private company, and no changes are planned in this regard either within the framework of the existing structural regulations or the proposed changes,” Mariam Zadoyan notes.
According to the current regulations, there are no incentive structures for encouraging the whistleblowers in Armenia. However, the lack of these and the need for their implementation is specified in the Draft Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Republic of Armenia for 2023-2026 and the Action Plan Stemming from it.
The expert detailed that in any case, the criteria for making a decision on awarding a reward include: the degree of the whistleblower’s merit in clarifying a serious offense harmful to the public and identifying its author, the proportionality of the whistleblower’s reward to the damage caused by the violation or the threat of it, in case of accountability, etc.
Within monetary reward mechanisms, a separate subtype is also distinguished: the qui tam concept, which is used, in particular, in the United States, and involves the filing of a civil lawsuit by citizens, but on behalf of the government, against the offenders and, if successful, receiving a reward.
Speaking about the possibility of reporting on the whistleblowing platform, Mariam Zadoyan detailed that in international practice, there is a tendency to expand the scope of information subject to protection to include any issue of illegal actions or potential harm to public interests, including violations of fundamental human rights, and the labor rights among them.
“According to RA legislation, information subject to protection includes reports of corruption cases, conflicts of interest or rules of conduct or incompatibility requirements or other restrictions or violations related to the declaration and other damage to public interests, that is, damage to public health or the environment, state funds or waste of property, as well as other damage caused to the order of public or state administration, or regarding the threat thereof. As a result, sectors such as violations of fundamental human rights, consumer protection, worker health, safety, including harassment, etc, are not included. At the same time, if corruption offenses are exhaustively defined by legislation, the definition of damage to public interest is of a more general nature and does not clearly enumerate, at least at the level of official guidelines, an exhaustive list of these areas.
In addition, it is not possible to submit information on other damage to public interests on the unified electronic whistleblowing platform,” the expert said.
It should be noted that the Armenian Lawyers’ Association operates an online whistleblowing platform Haytnir.am , where citizens can report any corruption risk encountered in the territory of the Republic of Armenia, a case of a corrupt nature, a conflict of interest by a public servant or a requirement of code of conduct or incompatibility or other restrictions or in relation to an alleged breach of declaration or other alleged offences, or if they have information relating to any of the above cases.
Citizens can openly and anonymously report corruption and other cases on Haytnir.am online whistleblowing platform. Submitting an application is free.
Please note that this publication was prepared within the framework of the program “Multifaceted Whistle-Blowing Promotion in Armenia”, implemented by the “Armenian Lawyers Association” (ALA) NGO with the support of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), funded by the European Union (EU) within the framework of the “EU for Good, Eastern Partnership” project.
This publication expresses the position of the author, the ALA, which does not necessarily coincide with the position of the OGP and the EU.