Two members of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center nominate the third as a candidate for CPC member
Tatevik Barseghyan has been nominated for the vacant position of a member of the Commission for Prevention of Corruption by the decision of the Competition Board for the selection of a candidate for the position of a member of the CPC.
Today, the National Assembly is discussing the issue of appointing Barseghyan to the mentioned position.
It is clear from the biography that the latter worked in the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center (TIAC) in 2012-2019, and currently is a member of TIAC.
It should also be noted that the Competition Board includes two former employees of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, Liana Ghaltaghchyan , who is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister and Heriknaz Tigranyan, who is an MP.
Tigranian was in the TIAC Board, and currently is the TIAC member. Ghaltaghchyan is also a member of TIAC. Tigranyan presented Barseghyan’s biography in the National Assembly.
Notably, Sos Avetisyan, the candidate’s husband, is a deputy of the National Assembly from the “My Step” Party.
In 2017-2018, Avetisyan was coordinator for the civil society programs of the Open Society Foundations-Armenia (Soros Foundation).
Tatevk Barseghyan’s complete biography is available here .
In fact, it turns out that the two TIAC members elected another member and submitted the candidacy to the National Assembly, a fact that does not meet such important criteria set out in the Jakarta Statement on the Principles for Anti-Corruption Agencies as: impartiality, neutrality, integrity and competence, independence and political neutrality.
It is surprising when TIAC’s mission is to fight corruption and transparency, but through the activities of its members it contributes to the failure of the fight against corruption and supports sponsorship.
It should be reminded that on 19 November, 2019, the National Assembly elected the members of the Commission for Prevention of Corruption.
Lilit Aleksanyan, Haykuhi Harutyunyan, Edgar Shatiryan, Aramayis Pashinyan and Narek Hambardzumyan were elected members of the commission.
On 26 November, 2019, Edgar Shatiryan, a member of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, announced that he would resign. He currently holds the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court.
It should be noted that Transparency International is currently affiliated with the Government. A number of TIAC members now hold various state positions. For example, Arayik Harutyunyan Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister), Haykak Arshamyan (Executive Director of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund).
At the 22 August sitting, the Government decided to allocate 33 million 680 thousand drams from the reserve fund to two non-governmental organizations to observe the local self-government elections to be held on 8 September, 2019 in Artsakh.
16 million 200 thousand drams were allocated to the Stepanakert office of the Union of Informed Citizens and 17 million 480 thousand drams to the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, without a tender.