Government Holds Meeting of Anti-Corruption Policy Council

ArmInfo. On July 3, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, a meeting of the Council on Anti-Corruption Policy was held in the Government.

During the meeting, the Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Republic of  Armenia and its implementation for 2019 and the first quarter of 2020  was presented. So, in 2019, the commission established regulations  for checking the integrity of candidates for judges, judges of the  Constitutional Court, candidates for membership of the Constitutional  Court, persons subject to appointment to public office, as well as  other persons established by law, an appropriate legislative  framework has been formed, and its process is currently underway  application. The stage has already been completed for the election of  candidates for prosecutors, who will undergo retraining at the  Academy of Justice from next week, and the corresponding unit of the  Prosecutor General's Office will already be operational this  September.

In terms of criminalizing corruption, a provision was made for  mechanisms for the criminal liability of legal entities in draft new  codes of criminal and criminal proceedings. The draft law on the  Anti-Corruption Committee will be submitted to the Prime Minister's  Office next week, and the law on anti-corruption courts is discussed  with interested international organizations, after which it will be  submitted for public discussion.

The Prime Minister inquired about the process of studying integrity  in the implementation of confiscation mechanisms for property of  illegal origin. In June, on the basis of the integrity methodology,  the commission checked the integrity of prosecutors who are  responsible for the recovery of property of illegal origin and the  persons included in the lists of candidates for the Deputy Prosecutor  General of the Republic of Armenia, coordinating this area, and  presented a conclusion on the integrity of 26 candidates, 2 of which  were negative, 11 - with positive reservations, and 13 - positive.  According to the leaders of interested structures, the process was  effective, while work is ongoing to improve it.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the anti-corruption direction  reflects the political will of the government, and all necessary  funds will be provided for the full implementation of the measures  envisaged.

Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan presented details about the  legislative package on improving the system of declaring property,  income, and introducing a system of declaration of expenses. In  particular, it is proposed to introduce the institution of declaring  expenses, establish the property to be declared that is actually  owned by the declarant, form a mechanism for controlling corruption  risks after the termination of the official duties of the declarant,  reduce the monetary threshold of precious property, and expand the  circle of declarants.

During the exchange of views on the proposed regulation, the members  of the council presented their observations on the types of expenses,  limits, money threshold of expensive property and other issues. The  Prime Minister noted that the introduction of an effective  declaration system is one of the important tools to ensure  transparency and accountability, and it is necessary to consistently  go forward this way.  The meeting also presented proposals on public  administration reforms, anti-corruption mechanisms of investment  policy and other topics.