Referring to the issue of the session of the Anti-Corruption Council that will take place tomorrow at the Government, Gevorg Manukyan, President of Armenian Constitutional Right-Protective Center NGO, which is a member of the Alliance of Armenian NGOs with special consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) said, “A body that is formed by ignoring the field of the civil society provides an impression of formal participation.”
The two NGOs that will report at the session, in fact are not members of the Council, because not a single NGO had submitted a bid for participation in the announced tender for participation.
“It seems as if there is a sort of competition in the Civil Society and Government cooperation relations, which is aimed to find which party can make more use of the other. This is really a very harsh formulation. In this case the authorities in fact succeeded in using and creating the illusion of civil society participation. No actual result may be expected in such case,” Mr. Manukyan said.
He reminded that the Alliance had stepped forward with a statement urging the representatives of Executive branch to unite the potential of the RA Government and the specialized Civil Society Organizations towards the establishment of an independent professional Anti-Corruption body in consistence with the provisions and principles of the UN Convention Against Corruption, Jakarta Statement on Principles for Anti-Corruption Agencies, Kuala Lumpur Statement on Anti-Corruption Strategies.
“The statement of our Alliance is still working. The government has not undertaken anything and is continuing its line,” Mr. Manukyan concluded.
