“Recommendations of “Yelk”, “Tsarukyan Alliance” and “ARF Dashanktutyun” factions have been included in the Law on Corruption Prevention Council and Related Legal Acts,” Arpine Hovhannisyan, Vice President of the National Assembly, the co-author of the draft said today at the session of the National Assembly of the RA.
“What is changed in the laws? First, on recommendation of the factions an amendment has been made in Article 11 of the Law on Corruption Prevention Council. It is added that the composition of the Competition Board for the selection of members of the Anti-Corruption Council shall include members recommended by the Human Rights Defender, the Chamber of Advocates, the President of the Constitutional Court, as well as opposition factions of the RA NA and the Public Council; one candidate recommend by each of the mentioned above bodies. In addition, the board member recommended by the factions is appointed by consensus. The member proposed by the Public Council shall be a representative of civil society,” Arpine Hovhannisyan said.
In addition it is provided that the Prosecutor General’s Office of the RA undertakes obligation to publish a separate report on corruption-related crimes by April One of each year.
Then Arpine Hovhannisyan assured that she did not wish to undertake the responsibility of being anyone’s advocate, but she wanted to emphasize that, “Everyone, while speaking about the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials, its instruments, its success or failure, must consider several factors. First: What kind of resources, tools and in what period of time the Commission had implemented that work. Exclusively, thanks to the efforts of the Commission, today we have the declaration system in place. Let me mention for comparison the experience of Romania: 200 staff and a budget of 4.5 million Euros, and over 7 years took to introduce the declaration instrument,” Arpine Hovhannisyan said and referred to the Commission on Ethics that works in Armenia, “Five members, a budget you can get acquainted yourselves and just 3 years, to introduce the declaration system that seems so natural for all of us.”
Today, the National Assembly adopted completely the packages of the Draft Law on Corruption Prevention Council and Related Legal Acts. There was a smile on Arpine Hovhannisyan’s face, the draft package that she presented was adopted unanimously, with 92 votes in favor.
Notably, the authors of the project are Arpine Hovhannisyan and the Government, the package formed as a result of cooperation with the civil society.
