Limitation period for political offences of financial nature will be extended from one year up to two years. Today, the Government approved the Draft on Amendments in the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Armenia.
Yegishe Kirakosyan, Deputy of the Acting Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan mentioned at the Government session that the need of the amendment issues from the international obligations of the Republic of Armenia in fighting the corruption.
It is due to mention that at the 58th Plenary Meeting of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which took place on 3-7 December 2012, the Compliance Report on Armenia was provided at the Third Evaluation Round, which was about the implementation of the introduced recommendations.
In Clause 83 of the report GRECO recommended to increase the limitation period for administrative violations listed in Point 5 of Article 37 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Armenia.
GRECO had consistently found that one year is not sufficient to take into account the complexity of all political financing offences, especially if supervision is to be improved.
Moreover, GRECO noted the additional possibility offered by Article 37(4) of the Code of Administrative Offenses, but considers that this Article does not offer sufficient flexibility to take into account all possible situations. If an irregularity is detected more than one year after it was committed, not by the Central Electoral Commission itself, but by the media or another political party for instance, it is doubtful whether the Commission would or could carry out the relevant controls in order to be able to pronounce a fine.
GRECO urged the Armenian Government to review the limitation period applied to such offenses and at the same time in Paragraph 90 of the Report established the deadline for implementation of recommendation on 30 June 2014.
