The draft law on Making Amendments to the Constitutional Law the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly authored by the deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Sergey Bagratyan proposes to extend the term of the activity of the NA Inquiry Committee. Pursuant to the current legislation, the term of office of the Inquiry Committee is up to 6 months, which can be extended once up to 6 months by the suggestion of the Committee and the decision of the National Assembly. According to the author, this regulation is disputable. Experience has shown that as a result of insufficiency of the mentioned terms, during the activity of the previous parliament, the Inquiry Committees also extended the powers of the Committee up to 6 months, which was not enough even in that case.
Therefore, the draft proposes to amend the term of office of the Inquiry Committee making it 1 year, which can be extended once up to one year by the proposal of the Committee and the decision of the National Assembly. Sergey Bagratyan clarified that the amendment will apply to the Inquiry Committees established after the adoption. During the debate, it was suggested to make the term of office of the Committee 1 year, which can be extended up to 6 months. The author accepted it.
It should be noted that the parliamentary Inquiry Committee is established by force of law, on demand of at least one-fourth of the total number of the deputies in order to find out the facts related to the issues within the competence of the National Assembly and of public interest and to present them to the National Assembly. The co-rapporteur Arpine Davoyan stressed the importance of accepting the proposal and noted that the current 6 months is not enough. She urged her colleagues to vote in favor.
The Committee endorsed the draft debated in the first reading.
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The Deputy Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan presented the conclusion of the Government on the draft law. The Deputy Minister proposed to review the justifications of the draft, as well as to clarify the transitional provisions.
On May 17, the draft was debated at the sitting of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
