On 6 July, the NA Council held an extraordinary sitting chaired by the RA NA President Ararat Mirzoyan.

The Council decided to invalidate the decision AJKHO-041-A of the NA Council of 29 June, 2021 “On appointing a member of the Competition Council to be formed for the election of candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee”.

Notably, according to this decision, Heriknaz Tigranyan was appointed a member of the Competition Council formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee by 11 votes in favor, 0 abstentions and 0 votes against .

10 members voted in favor of declaring the decision invalid. It should be reminded that the NA Council consists of 17 members.

Iravaban.net earlier investigated the Tigranian’s appointment as a member of the Competition Council to be formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee is illegal, because under paragraph 3 of Article 18 of the Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee  a member with party affiliation cannot be appointed a member of the Competition Council, and Heriknaz Tigranyan is a member the “Civil Contract” Party.

The decision to declare the decision invalid states:

“Based on Article 28, Part 1, Clause 20 of the Constitutional Law “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly”, guided by Article 37, Part 1 of the Law on Normative Legal Acts, the Council of the National Assembly decides:

to recognize invalid the decision AJKHO-041-A of the NA Council of 29 June, 2021 “On appointing a member of the Competition Council to be formed for the election of candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee”.

Article 28, Part 1, Clause 20 of the Constitutional Law “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly” defines the powers of the Council, according to which, in the case provided for in Article 8, Part 1, Clause 9.3 of the Rules of Procedure, (within three days after receiving the application regarding the nomination of a member in the composition of the Competition Council (hereinafter; Competition Council) for the election of candidates for the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, a candidate for a member of the Competition Council shall be nominated to the National Assembly). Within seven days after the nomination of a candidate for a membership of the Competition Council by the factions of the National Assembly, a candidate shall be appointed to be a member of the Competition Council from among the candidates nominated by the factions of the National Assembly.

Part 1 of Article 37 of the Law on Normative Legal Acts stipulates that a normative legal act, except for the Constitution, is declared invalid by the decision of the legislative body, its successor or a body endowed with relevant powers.

It should be emphasized that the NA Council made a legal mistake here as well, as the decision should not have been repealed in accordance with Article 37 Part 1 of the Law on Normative Legal Acts, but it should have been declared invalid under Article 38 Part 1 of the same law, according to which:

A normative legal act is declared invalid by an act of a legislative body, its legal successor or a body endowed with relevant authorities, if the sub-legislative normative legal act has been adopted or enacted in contradiction with a normative legal act of higher legal force.

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; members of the “Prosperous Armenia” faction Vahe Enfiajyan and Mikael Melkumyan. Representatives of the “Prosperous Armenia” faction had not taken part in the sitting. 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.

The Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia issued a statement on 2 July, which states:

According to the RA Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee, a Competition Council is formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee. The Competition Council is composed of candidates nominated by the Government, the Council of the National Assembly, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Prosecutor General, the Human Rights Defender (each of them nominates one candidate), and two representatives of civil society.

Pursuant to Article 18 (3) of the same law, (…) any person with no party affiliation, (…) with the exception of a civil society representative, may be appointed member of the Council .

On 29 June, 2021, by the decision of the RA National Assembly Council, Heriknaz Tigranyan, MP of the ruling “My Step” faction of the National Assembly of the seventh convocation, was appointed a member of the Competition Council formed for the election of candidates for the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee. The latter was also a former employee of the “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO, and currently a member of that structure.

According to the electoral list of the “Civil Contract” Party published on the official website of the Central Electoral Commission (see number 18), Heriknaz Tigranyan’s party affiliation is mentioned the “Civil Contract”. That is, a representative of the NA was involved in the Competition Council , to whom the legislative restriction on party affiliation does not apply. She is a party member: The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenian strongly condemns this illegal appointment and reaffirms its position that the anti-corruption struggle in Armenia has failed and that personal and corporate interests are actually served under the guise of that struggle. The Coalition also addresses the NA deputies with the question whether the latter were informed about this requirement of the law and deliberately made an illegal decision, or due to ignorance they were misled and became part of the illegal process through negligence. The Iravaban.net news website conducted investigation on the issue as well.

The Coalition warned about the possibility of illegal formation of the Competition Council and the conflict of interests in its statement of 9 June, 2021. Therefore, the Coalition also reaffirms the position that this unfounded haste raises doubts regarding to the conditions under which the competition is organized. There is a reasonable suspicion that its purpose is formed by the Anti-Corruption Committee by the current power of the National Assembly with the participation of the National Assembly of seventh convocation.

It is also obvious that the non-governmental organizations affiliated with the ruling political force also support the realization of this goal. In particular, two of the other members of the Competition Council are representatives of civil society organizations. These organizations are Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center NGO and “Union of Informed Citizens” Consulting NGO. It should be noted that the decisions on the inclusion of these two structures are not a surprise at all. They received large grants from the government without a competition, illegally joined the Anti-Corruption Policy Council chaired by the Prime Minister, and with their participation they have turned the Council illegitimate and formal in nature on the part of CSOs.

The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia strongly condemns the “anti-corruption struggle” through illegal actions and calls on decision-makers to be guided by public interest rather than personal and corporate interests. The Coalition calls for the invalidation of the NA Council Decision AJKHO-041-A of 29 June, 2021, as it contradicts a normative legal act with a higher legal force, which is the Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee.

Note: The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia was founded on 28 November 2014 in Yerevan within the framework of the EU-funded “Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” project. The Coalition currently has 71 civil society organizations, and the secretariat is run by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.