On 10 May 2016, “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” Non-Governmental Organization (ALA) in cooperation with the CSOs group of Syunik marz of CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition organized an Anti-Corruption event on the theme “ Corruption Risks in the Field of State Welfare Payments in Syunik Marz” with participation of Syunik marz CSOs and Media. The event was organized in the scope of the EU funded “Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” Project and was held at the Syunik Anti-Corruption center of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
Representatives of the Civil Society Organizations, Kapan Municipality, Mass Media and the Regional Coordinator of ALA attended the event.
Regional Coordinator of the “Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption” Center, Ani Asatryan, presented her welcoming speech following by a report on the risks in the provision of public benefits in the Syunik region. She stressed that Syunik region citizens mostly complain about the problems in the region regarding public benefits, such as the social vulnerability assessment system, which is not often a fair assessment of the social situation. Also, employees of the social agency were trying to extort money from citizens which is a clear indication of corruption in the system. Citizens are often afraid to raise these issues because they are afraid of the repercussions.
Aram Hovannisyan, head of the Kapan agency was invited to give a report on the topic of “the procedure for granting state benefits and the essence of evaluation of the social vulnerability evaluation system.” He had expressed his willingness to attend and give a speech but for unknown reasons was not present at the meeting nor did he answer his telephone calls. This only goes to show once again that the representatives of state structures are not transparent in their actions.
President of “Kapan Women’s Resource Center” NGO Kristina Saghatelyan, member of the CSOs group of Syunik marz of CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition gave a speech in which she informed that that Labor and Social Issues Ministry plans to create an inter-ministerial council, which may also include NGO representatives. The goal is to identify persons in need of social assistance and create and implement social programs and continue to ensure supervision to carry out the programs.
“Mission Armenia” NGO representative, Ms. Poghosyan, noted that there are many problems in the provision of benefits, one of which is the fact that the authorities are causing unnecessary delays and difficulties in the process which prevents and dramatically extends the process to reach the goal of the program.
