“Not an Anti-C0rruption but a real corruption control is carried out by the power. And there is no trust in the activities of the Government created the Anti-Corruption Council,” Human Rights activists, Avetik Ishkahnayan, the President of The Helsinki Committee of Armenia said in the interview with Iravaban.net.
“The fact of their non corrupt nature is suspicious. How do day accumulated their assets and wealth. Can they prove that they have gained all in a fair way? They have no right to business. Combining business and position is corruption,” Avetik Ishkhanyan said.
The first session of a government formed Anti-Corruption Council shall take place on 28 July. However, the Council is not fully formed. According to the Government decision it should have had one representative from each opposition party of the NA and two NGO representatives (one from each NGO).
However, 4 opposition parliamentary factions from the overall 5 and representatives of two non-governmental organizations (one from each NGO) are not represented in the Council. They have refused to participate in the Anti-Corruption Council.
Avetik Ishkhanyan considers that boycotting the Anti-Corruption Council by the CSOs is correct. “Our organization is not engaged in activities of Anti-Corruption, but if we do, I would not participate.”
As for the question that according to the agenda two NGO representatives will speak at the session, and this is an imitation to show that the NGOs participate in the council as well, Avetik Ishkhanyan said that from the 5000 NGOs that currently operate in Armenia only a few function independently and it is always possible to find organizations that will agree to participate.
