“By large, however, we have failed to ensure the provision of the Constitutional that the MP cannot be engaged in entrepreneurial activity, and the MP has no right to be engaged in other activities except for pedagogical and teaching activities” – said RPA faction MP, Chairman of NA Ethics Committee, Khosrov Harutyunyan, in an interview with Aravot.am, adding that even the media have made the use of the phrase “entrepreneur-MP” common. Thus, according to him, reporting the reality, the media at the same time make it common while it should be considered as bizarre.
The opportunity of talking with Mr. Harutyunyan was the report on Armenia published yesterday by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). Accordingly, corruption remains to be the most important problems in Armenia although the corruption one of the priorities of the fight for years. The report, in particular, reads, “Years ago, the parliament acknowledged the adoption of the rules of ethics for MPs. That said, the rules remain rather vague and appear insufficient to guide MPs in concrete situations. As GRECO has repeatedly pointed out, such standards of ethics and conduct need to provide clear guidance, inter alia, on the prevention and avoidance of conflicts of interest, on the acceptance of gifts and other advantages.”
The report estimated the work of the ethics committee in the parliament unsatisfactory, emphasizing that until now, nothing was reported for the MP that the latter is engaged in business activities, in the event that even some MPs have claimed in an interview with European experts that it is an adopted practice in the Parliament of Armenia to be engaged in something else, including the business. This accusation is denied by the government authorities of Armenia. Considering the establishment of the Ethics Commission in the Parliament one step forward, the Group fighting against corruption emphasizes that its work would be more reliable if the claims against the lawmakers are investigated not by the partner-legislators but by an independent body which will also have an opportunity to set an appropriate punishment.
Khosrov Harutyunyan believes that it is worth talking about all of this but not just saying but to shaping quite practical systems, including also by the law, which will ensure such the conflict of such interests. He illustrates examples from the international, the same western experience, by pointing out to the US presidential candidate Donald Trump, which is a billionaire, “Accordingly, the problem should not set forth that the person who is involved in businesses should not enter the politics but what to do for his business interests do not become primary during his political activities and not to make his political activities serve his business goals.”
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In this context, our interlocutor emphasizes the establishment of accreditation management institutions, which we are still lagging behind. “Therefore, these are issues that the Ethics Committee alone cannot decide. Perhaps, the Ethics Committee can be a raiser of these questions, one of the initiators but one of them but not the only one. To assume that the Ethics Committee will give solutions to all these problems, I do not think so,” said Khosrov Harutyunyan. He also considers the thesis outdated that the claims against the MPs in the Ethics Committee should be examined not by the partner-legislators but by an independent body which will also have an opportunity to set an appropriate punishment, “Now, we are engaged in the legislation of auditing chamber, which is very common in the international practice and its functions include examining the manifestations of conflict of interests in different wings of the government. Perhaps, in the future, by developing this legislation we could find solutions in this way. But one thing is clear: the conflict of interest needs to be endured by systemic solutions, only wishes are not enough,” opines the representative of the ruling force, noting that the tendency of former and current members of the Parliament to be engaged in the businesses has not increased.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
