For the purpose of involving non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council of the Republic of Armenia, the Ministry of Justice, according to Prime Minister’s decision, announced a call with a deadline set on 11 July. On the following day, 12 July, the first session took place. The public found out about this only after the  announcement spread by the Press Service of the RA Government. 

The call announced for the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council was organized with a number of violations. 

According to Paragraph 3, Part 2 of the call announced for the non-governmental organizations involved in the Council and the rotation order approved by Prime Minister’s decision (announcement about involving non-governmental organizations in the composition of the Council), the ministry publishes a respective statement at least 10 days prior to starting the competition held to include non-governmental organizations in the council. The statement is published on www.gov.am, the official website of RA Prime Minister’s Staff, www.moj.am, the official website of the RA Ministry of Justice and the anti-corruption.gov.am platform. 

According to Paragraph 5, Part 3 of the same order (presentation of applications by NGOs for the purpose of getting involved in the council), non-governmental organizations present applications to the ministry within 10 days after the publication of the statement. 

This order does not foresee any provisions on extending the deadline of the call.  

It stems from the combined analysis of paragraphs 3 and 5 of Annex 3 of RA Prime Minister’s decision from 24 June 2019 On Creating the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, Council Composition and Order of Activities, Approving the Call and Rotation Order of the Non-Governmental Organizations Involved in the Council, and Revoking RA Prime Minister’s N 300-Ն Decision from 18 April 2015, that the RA Ministry of Justice can set ten days as the maximum period for the call held for involving non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council. At the same time, regardless of the number of existing vacancies and the applications submitted, the above-mentioned decision is missing a possibility of extending the mentioned period. That is to say, the legal regulations of the decision allow to announce a new call; however, the mentioned decision does not allow for extending the deadline of the already announced call.   

However, regardless of the fact that at first the Ministry of Justice announced the call before 10 July, on the same day, the ministry spread a statement about extending it by 1 day, when, on the one hand, the above-mentioned decision does not foresee any order of deadline extension. In addition, no powers are reserved for the Ministry of Justice to extend the deadline of the above-mentioned call.  

Which organizations have submitted applications to become members of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, on which days and hours? 

According to Sub-Paragraph 2 of Paragraph 4 of Part 2 (call on involving non-governmental organizations in the Council) of the call and rotation order of the non-governmental organizations involved in the Council, approved by Prime Minister’s decision, the statement must have also contained information on dates and hours of application submission. However, the statement had been published through obvious violation of the order, as a result of which it only had information on the dates of application submission.  

In response to the inquiry of Iravaban.net, the Ministry of Justice has presented the following list of applicant organizations: 

As it becomes clear, 4 of the 6 applicant organizations submitted their documents on 11 July, the added date of the call, thus the commission created to implement the process of involving non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council could not approve the compliance of the documents submitted by the “Freedom of Information Center” NGO, the “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO, the “Union of Informed Citizens” Advisory NGO and the “Investigative Journalists” NGO with the requirements set out in Paragraph 7 of the call and the rotation order of non-governmental organizations involved in the Council, as approved by the Prime Minister’s decision, for the reason that the above-mentioned four NGOs had submitted their applications 1 day after 10 July, the date set out in the above-mentioned order and announced by the RA Ministry of Justice. 

In response to the enquiry of Iravaban.net, the Ministry of Justice also reports that the session of the commission created for carrying out the process of involving non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council has been held and that the minutes on summing up the results of the session were written on 11 July (the same day when the call ended). As it has already been mentioned, Sub-Paragraph 2 of Paragraph 4 of Part 2 (call on involving non-governmental organizations in the Council) of the call and rotation order of the non-governmental organizations involved in the Council, as approved by the Prime Minister’s decision, in fact has been violated, when the call did not contain information on application submission; as a result of this violation, discretion has been manifested. 

Interestingly, if the call is considered to have ended on 11 July, at 6:00PM (the end of the working day at the RA Ministry of Justice), then how was the application of the “Investigative Journalists” NGO considered and given a positive conclusion, given the fact that it was submitted on 11 July, 6:13PM? And if 11 July, 11:59PM is seen as the end of the call, then when were the results discussed and summarized, given that the minutes were also written on 11 July? In addition, if 11 July, 11:59PM were the end of the call, then it turns out that the Ministry of Justice has showcased arbitrariness, studying the application upon receiving it at 6.13 PM. This is where a question arises on what guarantees the ministry had of the fact that no other NGOs would submit applications by 11:59PM.  

Even if there were a possibility of extending the deadline of NGO applications in the order set out by the Prime Minister’s decision and if there were a need to extend the deadline of application submission because of insufficient number of applications, then it does not seem logical how that gap could be filled in a day. In the case of the question discussed, it is not understandable how the majority of participating non-governmental organizations applied during that one day. In such conditions, reasonably substantiated doubts arise regarding an agreement between the RA Ministry of Justice and non-governmental organizations which submitted applications on 11 July being preliminary, illegitimate and unlawful, with the ministry having extended the deadline by one day in order to ensure the entry of these non-governmental organizations to the Anti-Corruption Policy Council. According to Paragraph 6 of Part 3 (Organization of the Council Activities) of the order set out by Prime Minister’s decision, the Council is regarded as well-formed, regardless of the involvement of civil society representatives in the council. That is to say, it is obvious that the call extension did not have the purpose of ensuring the mere formation of the Council.   

In any case, taking into account that no possibility of extending the call deadline is foreseen in the existing order set out by the Prime Minister’s decision, the actions of the RA Ministry of Justice are neither lawful nor legitimate and are subject to the respective legal assessment. 

The Anti-Corruption and Penitentiary Policy Development Department of the Ministry of Justice reports the following: 

“Taking into account the fact that the documents of one of the applicant organizations did not correspond to the list of required documents, in the order defined in Paragraph 14 of Annex 3 of the decision, the organization was notified about this within 1 day after which it was given 2 working days to fix the shortcomings. The organization presented the information within the period prescribed, as a result of which on 17 July 2019 the commission made a decision.”

According to this decision, the application of the “Mehrabyan Scientific and Educational Center” NGO which submitted the documents on 10 July was not processed as the organization had not removed the flaws of the application within the period prescribed. It is mentioned in the minutes prepared on 11 July that the information included in the documents submitted by the organization is not sufficient for assessing the experience of 3 and more years in the field of anti-corruption, as well as that in the implementation of 3 and more projects in the field of anti-corruption together with international organizations.  

The above decision approved the compliance of the documents presented by other organizations with the requirements set by the order. 

4 of the non-governmental organizations, that is, “Freedom of Information Center” NGO, “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO, “Union of Informed Citizens” Advisory NGO, and “Investigative Journalists” NGO had sent their applications after the 10-day period approved by Prime Minister’s decision, thus it turns out that recognizing the above-mentioned four NGO as winners of the call is already unlawful and the involvement of those non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council of the Republic of Armenia is unlawful and illegitimate as the above-mentioned four NGOs missed the application submission deadlines.  

According to Paragraph 8 of Part 3 of the Prime Minister’s decision, within three days after the end of each council session, the information on the issues discussed during the session is published on www.gov.am, the official website of Prime Minister’s Staff of the Republic of Armenia and anti-corruption.gov.am, the anti-corruption monitoring platform. 

As we have already mentioned, the first council session took place on 12 July, the day following the end of the call. It becomes clear from the minutes of the session that the “Mehrabyann Scientific and Educational Center” NGO is in the list of non-governmental organizations included in the council. However, on 17 July, it was mentioned in the decision made by the Ministry of Justice:

Decided:

• Not to process the application submitted by the “Mehrabyan Scientific and Educational Center” non-governmental organization, given the fact that the applicant organization failed to fix the shortcomings in the period prescribed, thus failing to meet the requirements set out in Paragraph 7 in Annex 2 of the Decision. 

The “Investigative Journalists” NGO which received a positive conclusion in terms of compliance with the conditions of the call announced for getting involved in the council, is not included in the list. 

Excerpt from the minutes of the session of 12 July 

NGO Representatives

1. Ayvazyan                      Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center
2. Ioannisyan                                                          Union of Informed Citizens
3. Babayan                            Mehrabyan Scientific and Educational Center

                Sh. Doydoyan                               Freedom of Information Center

The RA Government, in response to our inquiry, reports that the mentioned organizations took part in the session as candidate-members. “Invitations to take part in the session have been sent to all the 6 applicant non-governmental organizations but only the representatives of 4 of them participated,” reads the response to the inquiry. 

According to 14 Paragraph of the Order of Activities of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council in the Prime Minister’s decision, at Council Chairman’s invitation, representatives of non-parliamentary parties, civil society, mass media can take part in council sessions, in addition to state and local government agencies, state and community non-profit organizations not included in the council, non-governmental and international organizations. Therefore, it is not understandable why the real anti-corruption actors were not invited to the council session. 

In addition, Paragraph 15 of Part 3 of Prime Minister’s decision reads: “The Council activities are public, except for the cases of convening the closed session or a part of it as a result of the justified verbal decision of the Council Chairman. The Council ensures coverage of its work.”

A discrepancy arises here, too. 

If the council activities are public and open, and mass media representatives can also participate in a council session at council chairman’s invitation, then why no announcements on council sessions are spread beforehand and why is it not open for mass media coverage?

The Information and Public Affairs Department of the RA Prime Minister’s Staff reports:

RA Prime Minister’s decision N 808-Ն from 24 June 2019 On Creating the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, Approving Council Composition and Order of Activities, the Call and Rotation Order of the Non-Governmental Organizations Involved in the Council, and Revoking RA Prime Minister’s N 300-Ն Decision from 18 April 2015 foresees no requirement to spread an announcement on the council session beforehand. 

It is also mentioned that according to the same decision a requirement of session live broadcasting is not foreseen either. No invitations have been sent for session coverage. Apart from that, according to the decision requirement, it was broadcast by the Prime Minister’s Information and Public Affairs Department. Therefore, if the Government has adopted a policy of open and transparent work with the public, an example of which can be seen in the live broadcasting of RA Government’s sessions (by the way, this also is not an imperative requirement set out by a legal act), then why are the date, agenda, and the entire session in itself hidden from the public?! 

Taking into account the above-mentioned, it is important that RA Prime Minister revises the unlawful and illegitimate results of the call announced for the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council of the Republic of Armenia, in terms of the four winning NGOs, that a new call is announced in order to include the four non-governmental organizations missing in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council. Otherwise, it turns out that the agency carrying out anti-corruption work has already started its activities with grave violations of legal acts. 

Furthermore, in the scope of this material, the compliance of the documents presented by NGOs for membership in the council with the requirements set out by the Prime Minister’s decision has not been considered. If necessary, Iravaban.net will proceed to write more on this in the future. 

Alisa Chilingaryan