15 organizations in the town of Gavar, Gegharkunik province, have become participants of the Anti-Corruption Compliance Program and completed the questionnaire “The Role of Business in Fighting Corruption: Armenian Reality”.

The questionnaires have been developed within the framework of the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” Project, which is implemented by the “Center for International Private Enterprise” (CIPE), the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO (ALA), the “Corporate Governance Center” (CGC), and the “Yerevan Chamber of Commerce and Industry” (YerCCI).

Their objective is to identify the private sector’s attitude towards corruption in the business, the perception of the private sector of anti-corruption compliance, and the measures implemented and planned by the private sector to provide anti-corruption compliance.

The heads of the three of these 15 small business companies are women.

These companies include textile manufacturing, shoe production and trade companies, providers of TV service, as well as companies providing financial services.

The questionnaires provided to business representatives, in addition to the questions on corruption issues also included questions about whether the company has adopted the codes of business conduct, and if yes, how cases of violations are revealed and so on.

According to Liana Makvetsyan, a lawyer, responsible for the CSOs incubator the of the Gavar office of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project, the heads of organizations are interested in what they would gain from participation in this program and how it would contribute to the company’s safer work.

“When completing the questionnaires, various questions are raised regarding this or that formulation, which can be assumed that the business sector does not have a very good understanding of anti-corruption programs, undesirable consequences of corruption in business, and the fight against them. They noted that manifestations of corruption are often be met in individual-state body dialogue, and they attached importance to the fact that both parties should be responsible,” she said.

The following steps will be taken within the framework of the program:

• Involvement of SME representatives from different spheres;
• Assistance to SMEs in filling in questionnaires for capacity and risk assessment;
• 1-day training on basic anti-corruption principles and mechanisms;
• Elaboration and implementation of anti-corruption policy;
• Provision of individual consultations.

Notably, the objective of the project is to combat corruption in the business sector, to introduce the Anti-Corruption Compliance Standards within the Armenian business community, and implementing Anti-Corruption Compliance Programs in SMEs.

This material has been prepared in the scope of the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” Project implemented by the “Center for International Private Enterprise”, the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO, the “Corporate Governance Center” NGO and the “Yerevan Chamber of Commerce and Industry” with financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy. The project is implemented as a co-financing to the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” action implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium comprising the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO, the “Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS” NGO, the “International Center for Human Development” NGO, the “SME Cooperation Association” NGO, the Union of Communities of Armenia, as well as “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic). The contents of this material are the sole responsibility of the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the National Endowment for Democracy and the European Union.