At the 9 February session of the Government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referred to the “Corruption Perceptions Index 2022” published by the “Transparency International”, according to which the Republic of Armenia has recorded some retreat.
The 2022 Armenia’s Corruption Perception Index is 46 points out of 100, where 100 is very clean and 0 is highly corrupt. Compared to the previous year, it decreased by 3 points. This is represented at the scale of 180 countries/territories of the world. The Prime Minister described this as a “disturbing alarm”.
The report notes that “high-level corruption in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is closely linked to political instability, weak institutions and, in extreme cases, violent conflict. The region with the second-lowest average score (35) has a vicious cycle of corruption and authoritarianism, with many governments undermining democratic processes, encroaching on civil space and restricting media freedoms.”
It is noted that if the corruption index is below 50, corruption is a serious issue in those countries.
“This is a very important indicator for us, and in our anti-corruption policy strategy, we have a very clear goal of recording progress in this indicator. And we have a certain action plan for the period until 2026. The retreat in this indicator, even if it is not very big, even if it is not very significant, is a disturbing alarm for us” Prime Minister Pashinyan said at the Government session.
Nikol Pashinyan considered this indicator worrying: there is no progress, which is already a problem and unacceptable. According to him, this indicator shows the perception of people who communicate with various state bodies. “It is necessary to make sure that corruption is either impossible, or its possibilities are very narrow and limited.
Let us add that in the 2019-2022 Action Plan of the RA Anti-Corruption Strategy, it was planned within the framework of corruption prevention, that the Corruption Perception Index should reach 55 in 2022, but, however, as you can see, the implementation of this point of the strategy in addition to failure toinsure it also lost 9 positions, losing 3 points. It turns out that the actions planned by the strategy did not serve their purpose.
of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council was held in Jermuk , in which representatives of the legislature, executive, judicial systems, as well as civil society and other bodies participated.
A few days later, on 11 February, another meeting of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council chaired by the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was held in Jermuk, in which representatives of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, as well as civil society and other bodies participated.
It was noted that the process of developing a new anti-corruption strategy is currently underway.
Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of providing proper public awareness regarding the development of new programs and systems and legislative changes to be implemented in the anti-corruption sector. “Now we have to focus on the content of the new Anti-Corruption Strategy. The recommendations made in today’s session should become a guideline for the strategy. The anti-corruption commitment and will of our government to fight against corruption has not wavered even by a millimeter,” the Prime Minister said.
On the recommendation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, at the meeting of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, a decision was made to establish a working group by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia on inclusive principles to develop a New Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Republic of Armenia. The deadline for the development of the strategy is 1 July, 2023.
