“I do not share the Ambassador’s assessment that the Anti-Corruption Council has not made any progress. I do not think that it is justified not to notice it that a number of important drafts that were passed by the National Assembly as a result of unanimous voting by all parliamentary forces, essentially, were also discussed by the Anti-corruption Council, the assignments were voiced right in this Council and were implemented as a result of its activities,” said RA Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan to Aravot.am, referring to the US ambassador’s recent raised criticism.
“This is a vivid evidence that the RA authorities have a political will and the Government displays this political will. The message is clear and these are the steps which we are fulfilling. I do not think that there should be a press conference about it to send a special message. And many concerns that the Ambassador has raised in his speech, their solutions are already a reality. We have already voiced them and steps are taken. Incidentally, I find it worthy to mention that we are following the right way rather than wait until the person is caught when taking a bribe or doing a favor,” said the Minister adding that the criminalization of illicit enrichment pursues exactly this objective, “If after the analysis of declarations it becomes apparent that legal income of given person has nothing to do with the property which he has declared or even not declared he must be brought to criminal responsibility.”
This, according to him, suffices for the proceedings executing body begin the process in the event of reasonable suspicions. “This means that we have given sufficient set of instruments to the competent authorities to make moves against corruption based on the analysis of these declarations. But we think that this is also not sufficient and have made additional moves, for instance, to elaborate a legislative package envisaging the restriction of cash operations. In fact, the Parliament passed the second reading of legislative draft on the administrative or criminal liability of officials for submitting incomplete, false or inaccurate declarations,” said our interlocutor.
Opportunely, recently, the Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Peter Switalski also said praising words about Karen Karapetyan’s government willingness to combat corruption and the steps already taken. The next step which the Anti-Corruption Council has discussed and given a positive conclusion refers to the expansion of the scope of people submitting a declaration and the expansion of the scope of co-related persons. As for the establishment of an independent anti-corruption body, Arpine Hovhannisyan notes that a Working Group has been formed by the presidential decree which is almost finishing the works to present its version of having an independent anti-corruption body, which will be independent in its decisions based on the ethics committee, have extensive liabilities and tools which will be able to take measures to adequately respond to any flaw identified by the body.
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“Hopefully, I completely dispelled the Ambassador’s concerns, and I am confident that all measures enshrined in our Government Program pertaining to anti-corruption policy actually meet the EU and, I am confident, the US Ambassador’s or other partners’ defined priorities,” said Arpine Hovhannisyan.
