In recent days, the awards that have been provided to various government officials have become the issue for discussions. The issue of disclosure of award information became the subject of discussions as well.
In the interview with Iravaban.net, Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, advocate, expert lawyer of the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association, mentioned that in reality, while speaking about the legitimacy of publishing this information, it is necessary to identify the circle of persons who received the awards and then discuss the legitimacy of the issue of publicizing or not publishing.
“According to Article 8 (1) (1) of the RA Law on Personal Data Protection, the processing of personal data shall be lawful, where: the data have been processed in observance of the requirements of the law and the data subject has given his or her consent, except for cases directly provided for by this Law or other laws;
According to paragraph 1 (15) of Article 3 of the same law, ““publicly available personal data” shall mean information, which, by the data subject’s consent or by conscious operations aimed at making his or her personal data publicly available, becomes publicly available for certain scope of persons or public at large, as well as information, which is provided for by law as publicly available information,” said the lawyer.
According to Susanne Soghomonyan, Article 34, Part 1 of the RA Law on Public Service, “Within the meaning of this Law, declarant officials shall mean persons holding state positions, persons holding positions of a head or deputy head of a community with a population of 15 000 or more, head or deputy head of an administrative district of the community of Yerevan, persons holding positions listed in the 1st or 2nd subgroup of managerial positions of civil service, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, persons holding the highest positions in the military service, persons holding chief positions in the police, tax, customs, penitentiary, and judicial acts compulsory enforcement services.”
“According to another provision of the law, the above listed persons submit a declaration on property, income and interests to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. Declarant officials shall submit declarations upon assumption and termination of their official duties, as well as annual declarations.”
According to Article 40 of the RA Law on Public Service, the declaration on property includes: monetary funds (including those in a bank). When declaring a property, the following shall be specified: in the case of monetary funds: the size and currency of the monetary funds.
Further, according to Article 41 of the same law, the declaration shall include the incomes defined in this Article and the sources wherefrom they were generated. Under this Law the following incomes received in Armenian drams or foreign currency or in an in-kind (non pecuniary) form shall be subject to declaration: (1) remuneration for work or any other equivalent payment;” she said.
In response to our question whether the award is a payment equal to salary, Susanna Soghomonyan said: “According to Article 178 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Armenia, the salary includes the basic salary and the additional wages paid by the employer to the work done by the employer. In addition, the additional salary includes bonuses, additional payments, awards and other incentive payments calculated on the basic salary set by the Labor Code, the law, other normative legal acts, collective or employment contract, the employer’s legal act.”
Thus, if it turns out that the data regarding the persons who according to the RA legislation are considered to be declarant officials and who have been rewarded by the state (e.g. ministries, regional administrations) or local self government (for example, Yerevan City Municipality), may be publicized by the mentioned above bodies.
Otherwise, according to Susanne Soghomonyan, sooner or later these data will be publicly disclosed by those who have received the award within their property and income declarations. It should also be noted that in this case, the provision of paragraph 1of Article 134 of the Labor Code pursuant to which while transferring the personal data of the employee the employer shall be obliged not to disclose the personal data of the employee to third parties without the employee’s written consent, because ” Paragraph 1 (15) of Article 3 of the RA Law on Personal Data Protection provides an exception.
