President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, Coordinator of the Secretariat of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition Karen Zadoyan’s speech at the “Government – Civil Society Anti-Corruption Conference” and “2nd Conference of the CSO’s Anti-Corruption Coalition”.

Dear representatives of Civil Society Organizations, Government Agencies, and Media,

I welcome all the participants of the First “Government – Civil Society Anti-Corruption Conference”

We all know that the The fight against corruption is visible and effective if it is implemented by joint efforts of the government and society. This means that society is no longer willing to tolerate corruption in our country, and reaches out to the authorities and the government, so that the latter show real political will in the fight against corruption to achieve real and visible results for the public.

Dear, Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is no society that wants ware. But the April war that was imposed on us, and which unfortunately resulted in dozens of deaths, and caused tears to our mothers and sisters, nevertheless recorded two really important results:

The first, are the heroic deeds of our today’s heroes, our brave soldiers and volunteers, which for many years will be a subject of serious coverage and inexhaustible reserve for patriotic education of young generation,

The second, the dangerous effects of corruption became visible to our society, starting from the publications about the huge amount of assets of a number of apology for generals and high-ranking officials, including their gorgeous castles; and publications on basic security issues of our hero soldiers and officers and their very modest living conditions, their sand floor homes that sometimes lack the roofs as well.

Our society woke up from a deep slumber instantly realized the dangers of corruption, and the need of intolerance and fight against it. Our society has realized that this is not a struggle against the entire ruling system, but the fight of the whites against the blacks, where among the whites we have very decent, honest and professional officials, community servants, representatives of the justice system, and many of them are here in this conference hall today (we all know that the fight against corruption is associated with white, black with the corruptionist). It is already clear that society was able to report these signals to the authorities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we have gathered here to voice the problems of corruption that exist in our country, and to offered solutions to overcome them by the joint efforts of government and civil society. As the President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, and Coordinator of the Secretariat of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition, I would like to draw your attention to the following issues in terms of the importance and effectiveness of the fight against corruption:

1. Number one problem for our country today is to eliminate impunity. We need to make serious efforts to implement the main demand of the International Anti-Corruption Conference which took place in the Malaysian city of Putrajaya. In this context, I think the criminalization of illicit enrichment in our country is imperative. This will allow to dispossess the current and former officials who have illegally enriched using the legal methods and to avoid the illegal methods of dispossession (which today is largely discussed in the public at large). And do this through legal measures, and only based on the court decisions return the illegally gained assets of these officials to the state and also subjected them to criminal liability under the law. It is very important that civil society organizations specialized in this issues under the leadership of CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition, and the RA Government represented by the Ministry of Justice have already advanced in the scope of the activities of the joint working group of the Ant-Corruption Platform established by the Government and the Civil Society. And I express my gratitude to the RA Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan and the Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Krmoyan.
2. The restoration of public confidence in the judiciary, including the law enforcement agencies assisting in the administration of justice, through implementation of real, deep and irreversible anti-corruption and professional reforms in active cooperation in these issues with the professional civil society organizations
3. Creation of the Independent Anti-Corruption Body on the legal basis with special functions of preventive and law enforcement authority. Or, as a first step we can view the creation of independent preventive anti-corruption body, and to reserve the function of investigation of corruption crimes to the Special Investigation Service, which shall be reformed especially for these purposes. The joint working group of the Ant-Corruption Platform established by the Government and the Civil Society has carried out much work in this issue as well.
4. Introduction of the Institute for the Protection of Whistleblowers based on the Law on Protection and Encouraging the Whistleblowers, which will allow to effectively fight against corruption. The evidence of effectiveness of this institute is the recent facts of disclosure of the Panama Papers (reporting person John Doe), disclosure of concealing billions of dollars in tax matters in the Swiss Banks, specifically in UBS Bank (reporting person Bradley Birkenfeld).
5. Ensuring maximum transparency and accountability on public procurement, state reserves and declarations on property, income, conflicts of interest, expenditure of the high officials, ban on participation in the public procurement process of the business companies affiliated with government officials and registered in the offshore.
6. Formation of powerful public movement Armenia Against Corruption, which will have a key role in the establishment of a strong system of public control over the government’s anti-corruption reforms, implementation of anti-corruption education, and raising the problem of corruption occurrences. CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition shall undertake a key role in this issue, through developing their organizational capacities, which we shall initiate today in the afternoon, in this hall. It should be noted that a number of business associations, Union of Communities of Armenia, other specialized organizations and entities of the public authority and individuals. This process will continue in the future as well.

Thank you for your attention and I wish you fruitful and effective work.

Armenia Against Corruption, where Armenia are we all!

Thank you.

Karen Zadoyan

President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association,

Coordinator of the Secretariat of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition

Iravaban.net