“I have had the opportunity to say that the functions of the Ethics Committee should be the conflicts of interests. The inaccuracies in the declarations should have become a subject for examination while we are the so-called busy with discussions on interpersonal dialogue being nice or not nice,” said the NA Ethics Committee opposition member Tevan Poghosyan in an interview with Aravot.am, referring to the report of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) on Armenia published yesterday. Tevan Poghosyan fully shares the observations expressed in the report. He also agrees that the commission activity would be more reliable if the claims against the parliamentarians are investigated not by the partner-legislators but by an independent body who will also have the opportunity to define an appropriate punishment.
Our interlocutor notes that it should already exist in the functions of the Ethics Committee of high-ranking officials but the operation of this body also bears a formal character. In an interview with Aravot.am, Chairman of the Ethics Committee, RPA faction deputy Khosrov Harutyunyan have also agreed with these remarks, saying that the sole executor of these functions cannot be the Ethics Committee, a systemic solution is necessary. Tevan Poghosyan agrees with this estimation too. Moreover, he reminded that during the discussion of the HRD candidacy, he stated in his speech at the Parliament that the most important law which must be passed this year is the NA Charter-law, which should cover all these issues and suggest solutions, otherwise, the body (the parliament) cannot be bad but one structure (the ethics committee) working in this body be good.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
