Advocate Marat Atovmyan, Board Member of the Armenian Young Lawyers Association, welcomes the efforts of the RA Government and in particular the willingness of the RA Ministry of Justice to negotiate with AYLA on the draft anti-corruption strategy. On the other hand he considers that the Ministry does not make any steps for implementing efficient fight against corruption, “If we consider the issue from the perspective of efficiency, here we have problems. We have presented many suggestions, which can be divided in two parts: first, most strategic recommendations that we support the introduction of the criminalization of illicit enrichment; and second, we believe that the only correct way is to create an independent anti-corruption body. These conceptual issues are not acceptable for the Government, the Ministry of Justice,” the Advocate said.
Recently, the NGO representatives met with the Deputy Justice Minister Suren Krmoyan and asserted their point of view, “We said from the very beginning, and now we insist on the same, we argue that the structures, which are scheduled in the draft, shall not bring a breakthrough in the fight against corruption in essence. I think it would be better not to hurry, and discuss all models.”
Mr. Atovyan also said that our government does not want to get out of the conceptual framework that served as a basis for the 2015-2018 anti-corruption strategy. He noted that this concept was adopted without negotiating with the NGOs.
