Addressing the formation systems of anti-corruption bodies, we face several issues during the implementation phase, said Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in a conversation with Iravaban.net.
“We face several issues. First, transparency, accountability, and real involvement of civil society, not just formal involvement. In the case of the Anti-Corruption Committee, it is planned that next year a mechanism will be developed so that both the committee’s president and leader selections will be made in the National Assembly. Currently, a competition council is being formed for selecting the Committee chairman, then they present candidates, the Government approves, and the RA Prime Minister approves the deputies. I will repeat again—implementing these reforms is very important, but it’s also very important that the bodies making these selections don’t deviate from anti-corruption values. It shouldn’t be that they deviate from anti-corruption values and select people according to their taste, party interests, or political demands, rather than professional, honest, worthy personnel, otherwise all this… let’s say, history tends to repeat itself, and these same people whom they select, when there is a change of power, these same bodies will also go after them,” he noted.
According to the ALA president, the Anti-Corruption Coalition and Armenian Lawyers’ Association call for everyone to remain within the realm of anti-corruption values and precise implementation of the Constitution and laws.
Karen Zadoyan also addressed the selection of personnel in anti-corruption bodies, noting that the issue should be viewed from two perspectives: involvement and training, as well as capacity development.
“Of course, the strategy and its action plan set specific indicators. For example, by 2026, to have 80 percent staffing for Anti-Corruption Committee investigators and operational officers; currently, I believe that staffing is around 68 percent, according to the first half of last year. I think this shouldn’t be so mechanical; first and foremost, it’s important to have credible competitions, so specialists believe that if they are honest, professional, and worthy, they should be involved in these positions. That is, the state, represented by anti-corruption bodies, should provide this environment and these conditions. If this is done, there will be a flow of personnel. Their operational effectiveness is also very important because personnel go to systems where they see they can use their potential to solve problems envisaged by that system. Now, if personnel see that effectiveness, naturally, the flow will follow. Another important condition is providing conditions for personnel. That is, working conditions, salaries, incentives, professional growth. If personnel aren’t joining, then these conditions aren’t being fully provided, and there’s a need to think and discuss here,” he noted.
Karen Zadoyan said he has seen the experience of other countries and believes there should be serious, practical arrangements with the world’s best anti-corruption educational institutions, as they have experience and recorded successes.
“We need to be able to learn from them and develop our capabilities based on that. I think that in terms of knowledge and capacity growth, we are quite lacking, and we have serious work to do here, and for that, we need to cooperate with quality professional structures that have that experience, knowledge, opportunities, and capabilities. I mean the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia’s CSOs with their professional, expert potential,” he noted.
The ALA president also spoke about building conditions, emphasizing that the Corruption Prevention Commission and the Anti-Corruption Committee do not have internationally standardized building and material-technical bases. According to him, this is a fundamental issue, and one should not expect these bodies to operate effectively under such conditions.
He also addressed the lack of representatives from any Armenian anti-corruption body at the 8th Symposium of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). The symposium was attended by Karen Zadoyan, member of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, coordinator of the Secretariat of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenian CSOs, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, and Marat Atovmyan, the Coalition’s anti-corruption expert and vice-president of the Association.
“Our coalition representatives, under my leadership, had meetings with both the leadership of the Hong Kong Independent Anti-Corruption Commission and those of Malaysia, Italy, and Greece. We have reached several agreements,” he noted.
During the meeting, Karen Zadoyan presented the progress of anti-corruption reforms in Armenia, the system of anti-corruption institutional bodies, issues, and possible cooperation framework, after which Marat Atovmyan presented possible cooperation mechanisms, including the implementation of needs-based educational programs for Armenia’s anti-corruption institutional bodies and specialized civil society representatives.
Details in the video.
