As it is already known, an Anti-Corruption Committee is currently being established in Armenia.
Article 18 of the Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee defines the formation and functions of the Competition Council . According to the law, a Competition Council is formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee.
The council is being formed from the candidates nominated by
- Government – 1 candidate,
- Council of the National Assembly – 1 candidate
- Supreme Judicial Council – 1 candidate
- Prosecutor General – 1 candidate
- Human Rigts Defender – 1 candidate, and
- from 2 (two) representatives of the Civil Society.
On 29 June, the Council of the National Assembly held a special sitting, during which 3 issues were discussed. One of them is the draft decision of the RA NA Council on appointing a member of the Competition Council formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee.
It should be noted that the NA Council has 17 members.
Heriknaz Tigranyan has been appointed a member of the Competition Council for the election of candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee as a result of voting by the NA Council with 11 votes in favor, 0 abstentions and 0 votes against.
Heriknaz Tigranyan is a deputy of the “My Step” faction of the National Assembly of the 7th convocation, she is the deputy chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Health and Social Affairs, and not of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs.
The appointment of Heriknaz Tigranyan as a member of the Competition Council formed for the election of candidates for the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee is illegal, because:
Paragraph 3 of Article 18 of the Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee states:
“Any person, except for the representative of civil society, with a bachelor’s degree or diploma in higher education or with a corresponding degree obtained in a foreign country, the recognition and confirmation of equivalence of which has been carried out in the Republic of Armenia in the manner prescribed by law; with high professional and moral qualities, with no party affiliation, who has at least five years of experience as a judge, prosecutor, investigator, operative commissioner, detective, lawyer or advocate in the field of anti-corruption policy development or anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing, or at least five years of complementary experience in those positions, may be appointed a member of the Council .”
It turns out that Heriknaz Tigranyan is a member of the “Civil Contract” Party.
This can be seen while checking the list of candidates of the “Civil Contract” party, the No. 3 political force participating in the 2021 extraordinary elections to the National Assembly available at the Central Electoral Commission, where “Civil Contract” Party is indicated at Heriknaz Tigranyan’s name.Council
It should be noted that there are also non-partisan candidates in the list, in front of whose names it is indiacted non-partisan. You can see this in the presented video․
This contradicts the well-known Jakarta principles, according to which the heads of anti-corruption agencies shall be appointed through a process that ensures his or her apolitical stance, impartiality, neutrality, integrity and competence.
In addition, she is a former employee of the “Transparency International” anti-corruption center, and currently is a member of the same organization.
Let us remind the interconnection of the “Transparency International” anti-corruption center with the Government as well.
Heriknaz Tigranyan is also a member of the Competition Council for the selection of a candidate for the post of Corruption Prevention Commission, which includes Liana Ghaltaghchyan, Deputy Chief of the Prime Minister Staff, who is also a member of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center.
Iravaban.net contacted Arman Abovyan, a member of the NA Council, Prosperous Armenia faction (secretary), who stated that he was not present at that sitting, and as far as he was aware, members of the faction Vahe Enfiajyan and Mikael Melkumyan were not present either. He was also not aware of what issues were discussed that day.
In response to our question whether they were aware about that draft, Arman Abovyan mentioned that they were familiar with the draft of creating an Anti-Corruption Committee before the war in 2020. “Before the war, there were discussions about what system should work, but after the beginning of the war, there were no discussions on that issue,” he said. As for the issue of Heriknaz Tigranyan’s appointment, the deputy mentioned, “It was a pre-election period, we did not have a discussion.”
Thus, this decision contradicts the law “On the Anti-Corruption Committee”, based on which the NA Council Decision AJKHO-041-A of 29 June, 2021 should be declared invalid.
It should be noted that the relevant bodies should examine this issue to find out whether the appointment of Heriknaz Tigranyan by the NA Council is a consequence of negligence or intent.
It should also be noted that a similar approach was shown in connection with the inclusion of members in the Competition Council of the Corruption Prevention Commission, with regard to which Iravaban.net published an extensive investigation. From the comparison of the facts we come to the conclusion that the President of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan coordinated the sphere of anti-corruption struggle based on personal and narrow group interests.
Let us add that Iravaban.net also tried to contact the other opposition members of the NA Council, members of the “Bright Armenia” faction Edmon Marukyan, and Arakdi Khachatryan; member of the “Prosperous Armenia” faction Vahe Enfiajyan and Mikael Melkumyan. If after the conversation with them it becomes clear that the “Bright Armenia” Party was not aware about and was not present during the elaboration of that draft either, and further about the appointment, it will turn out that this is not an appointment of the representative by the NA Council, but rather a political appointment by the “My Step” faction.
