“Within the framework of the “Open Government Partnership-Armenia” Initiative, we undertook and implemented the introduction and improvement of the system of declaration of high-ranking officials. Today, a new declaration system is already in place under the Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC), which meets the digitization, data processing and generation standards. As a continuation of those commitments, we also took over the registry of the declaration of gifts received by state officials and civil servants during the performance of their duties,” Ms Lilya Afrikyan, OGP Coordinator/Point of Contact of the Office of the Prime Minister of the RA, said in an interview with Iravaban.net.

According to her, the implementation of the systems of all registries will allow to get one complete picture and make an analysis. “The Register of Gifts is an interesting novelty in our reality, because it is largely connected with the introduction of the benevolence system. It is a new culture. The toolkits have already been created and implemented by the CPC.

At the moment, the electronic format is working, but according to Lilya Afrikyan, active work is being done in connection with the introduction of the registry itself. She notes that the implementation stage is very important in Armenia.

“We adopt various legal regulations; platforms are introduced, but we have a problem with implementation. Continuous awareness and capacity building meetings and trainings are needed for all officials,” she said.

Lilya Afrikyan is sure that there will be other initiatives within the framework of the OGP that will complete the implementation of the systems. “Developing and implementing citizen-centric and needs-responsive policies is the commitment of all governments, but it is important to have these mechanisms in place. The Open Government Partnership platform and community is the toolkit and mechanism through which the commitments of the Government are implemented,” she said.

This publication was prepared by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia within the framework of the “Multi-Faceted OGP Action: Open Justice & Anti-Corruption Commitments” project implemented with the support of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), in the framework of the European Union funded “EU for Integrity Programme for the Eastern Partnership” Action.

The publication expresses the position of the author, the ALA, which does not necessarily coincide with the position of the OGP and the EU.