A workshop entitled “Code of Conduct for the Establishment of an Integrity System” organized in cooperation with the Council of Europe and the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) was held in Yerevan on 23 February.

During the workshop, a common understanding of the rules of conduct, the mechanisms for its introduction, which are intended to form a balanced and identical behavior in the field of public service, were presented.

The draft rules of conduct for public servants were also presented during the workshop. The representatives of the Public Administration System, the Council of Europe, the European Union Headquarters and Foreign Diplomatic Missions accredited in Armenia attended the workshop.

Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyants in a conversation with Iravaban.net mentioned that the functions performed by the ministry in this sphere are mainly legislative changes.

We cooperate with both the CPC and non-governmental organizations and that is how we are able to choose the right targets and find solutions to problems. Our goal is to expand the circle of declarants. We do not want to do it through the human factor, because in that case there is a demand for great resources. That is why now the CPC and we are trying to do it all through an electronic system,” she said.

According to the Deputy Minister, at the moment the declarations of 35 thousand people are being checked, both the officials and their relatives. “It is clear that the declarations are based on a very serious basis and they must be completely completed and inclusive. It is clear.”

Ms Tumanyants also mentioned that the conclusions of the CPC on the person applying for the position may be published in the future.

Lilit Aleksanyan, a member of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, noted that the image of high-ranking officials has been isolated from society for many years, and the rules of conduct should define the image of a high-ranking official, as well as the community servant and the public servant.

“At the moment, there is a point in the draft, which states that a public servant should not accept, demand or expect an advantage or a privileged attitude due to his position. It should be predictable for both public servants and the society what behavior is allowed, what is expected, what is inadmissible,” the member of the commission says.

According to Aleksanyan, the society itself should become the holder of the mandate to prevent corruption. Every member of society, seeing unacceptable behavior by a public servant, should react to it, and in addition, through applications and reports sent to the commission, it should help to ensure that this unacceptable behavior is punished and shall not be continuous.

“That is what is expected from the commission, because in that volume it is clear that one body will not be able to do all the work and should not do it. Prevention of corruption is not only in the domain of the commission, we must all deal with it,” she said.

Ms Aleksanyan thinks that the work of the commission during these few years has contributed to raising the vigilance of state officials and public officials. Besides, according to the member of the Central Committee, a lot of progress has been registered in connection with the institute of declaration, as a lot has changed since the formation of the commission.

“Comparing the first and current periods of submitting declarations, we can say that people’s vigilance is much higher. They are much more careful to fill in the declaration correctly. I think they realize that they are being checked and as a result there is both administrative and criminal responsibility,” Lilit Aleksanyan noted.

Syuzanna Soghomonyan, an Anti-Corruption Expert at the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA), told Iravaban.net that she is concerned about the fact that along with the expansion of the CPC powers the public does not see an active process of assets recovery.

 “To what extent is the toolkit provided to the Commission sufficient to find out the information on the existence of property outside the Republic of Armenia during the study of property and income declarations? Is there cooperation with embassies that issue visas to officials? Such problems need to be addressed because, according to various sources, the outflow of funds from Armenia is quite large,” She mentioned

It is obvious to Ms Soghomonyan that recently changes have been made in the field of prevention of corruption, including at the legislative level. The powers of the CPC have been expanded, but at the same time a comprehensive approach and the necessary tools should be provided which will help to prevent corruption.

“The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has two main functions: prevention and implementation of anti-corruption education. In the case of the second, civil servants, civil and community servants are often targeted, and citizens, young people, and, the public at large as a whole are completely excluded from the process. I’m not talking about 1-2 press releases, leaflets or videos. Both communication and strategic plans are needed to work properly with the target groups. They can be pupils and students, as well as our compatriots of the older generation. It is also important to continuously develop alternative programs and support existing initiatives,” Ms Soghomonyan noted and reminded as an example about the Anti-Corruption School for Young Leaders launched by the ALA, which has been operating since 2015 and has had a lot of graduates, which have found their place in various branches of government and in the private sector, applying the anti-corruption knowledge and skills they have acquired in the field of corruption prevention as well as in educational institutions.