On 28 October the Government announced that a regular session of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had taken place.
According to the report, the Council first approved the agenda of the sitting, after which the RA Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Grigoryan presented the progress of realization of the “RA Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2019-2022”.
It should be noted that from the very beginning, when the Anti-Corruption Policy Council was formed, Iravaban.net published an investigation into the fact that the competition for the inclusion of non-governmental organizations in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council was organized with a number of violations.
Pursuant to Clause 5 of Part 3 of the Competition and Rotation Procedure of Non-Governmental Organizations for the inclusion in the composition of the Council (submitting applications by the NGOs to be included in the Council) approved by the decision of the Prime Minister, NGOs submit applications to the Ministry of Justice within 10 days from the day following the announcement. This procedure does not provide for any extension of the competition, regardless of any type of energy accident, and it does not matter whether the competition has been postponed for “only” one or ten days. Meanwhile, at the end of the Competition, on the last, 10th day, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement informing that it was postponed for 1 day.
It was just on the postponed day that the “Union of Informed Citizens ” Advisory NGO submitted its application to the Ministry, as a result of which the “Union of Informed Citizens ” Advisory NGO, “Freedom of Information Center” NGO and “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO as a result of an illegal decision, were included in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council in violation of the Competition and Rotation Procedure of Non-Governmental Organizations for the inclusion in the composition of the Council, approved by the decision of the Prime Minister.
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The message spread by the Government in connection with the sitting reads, “It was reported that within the framework of the establishment of the anti-corruption institutional system, the legislative package aimed at the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Committee was adopted by the National Assembly during the reporting period. In order to ensure the start of the formation of the Committee, a competition for the position of Chairman of the Committee was held, as a result of which the Chairman of the Committee was appointed by the Government decision No. 1479-A of 16 September, 2021. At the same time, 30 investigators from the Special Investigation Service were appointed as temporary incumbents to autonomous positions in the Anti-Corruption Committee, until the positions would be filled through competitive procedures. Work is underway to define the legal basis for the formation of the operative-investigative subdivision of the Anti-Corruption Committee. At the same time, work is being done to create office premises for the Anti-Corruption Committee.”
Iravaban.net had earlier referred to the competition for the election of the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, presenting the investigation that the Election of the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee was ensured through a veil Competition.
According to the investigation and the presented arguments, the Competition Board did not function in full and the final decision was made by 4 members instead of 7, while the regulation of the law is not an end in itself and such decisions should be made not with minimum but with maximum votes. Most importantly, specialized CSOs that are not affiliated with the Government did not participate in the Competition Board, which is why the decision of the Competition Board to select candidates is illegitimate, and the Competition Board is a veil to appoint the initially predictable government candidate through a veil competition.
It should be added that the same two civil society organizations “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO and the “Union of Informed Citizens” Advisory NGO, were also included in the Competition Board, and their representatives are represented in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council as well.
Although it should also be noted that the representative of “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” NGO Hayk Martirosyan announced during the 29 July sitting of the Competition Board that he was leaving the composition due to some disagreements.
It should also be reminded that on 8 June, the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia issued a condemning statement.
“On 4 June, 2021, the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia announced a competition to involve two representatives of civil society in the Competition Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) for the Election of Candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee). The announcement of the competition was published on the Government website on Friday, 4 June, 2021. The period for applications is only 5 days, from June 7 to 11 inclusive (Monday to Friday following the announcement).
According to the RA Law on the Anti-Corruption Committee, a Competition Board is formed for the election of the candidates for the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee. The Board 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 – one candidate each, and two representatives of civil society.
The CSOs Anti-Corruption Coalition Armenia, taking into account the vicious practice of election of the Competition Board members for the election of the members to the Corruption Prevention Commission, has issued a condemning statement on 4 June, announces that it will not participate in the competition for the election of two members from the Civil Council to be included in the composition of the Competition Board, the statement read.
Moreover, the Coalition questioned the unjustified haste in the conditions under which the competition was organized during the pre-election campaign for the early parliamentary elections in Armenia under the veil of suddenness, false democracy and transparency.
The Coalition had called on the Government to refrain from holding the above-mentioned formal competition and making political appointments under its veil until the end of the extraordinary parliamentary elections and the formation of the new composition of the National Assembly. Earlier, the Coalition expressed a negative opinion on the appointment of the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, other officials and other important provisions, as it would be a political party-group interest-led, government-sponsored, one-person political appointment by the Prime Minister.
“From the outset, such formulation of the law does not meet such important criteria set out in the Jakarta Statement on the Principles for Anti-Corruption Agencies as: impartiality, neutrality, integrity and competence, independence and political neutrality. Therefore, the formation of anti-corruption bodies through corrupt behavior and conflicts of interest is doomed to failure from the beginning. And we, as pioneers in the fight against corruption, cannot be participants in it,” the statement read.
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The official statement mentions the changes according to sectors that have been made in the anti-corruption sphere.
Earlier, we also have investigated Who and How failed the Anti-Corruption Institutional System in Armenia. Some of the people who had played ative role in it still continue their participation both in the Anti-Corruption Policy Council and in various state positions.
