Systemic Corruption has not disappeared in Armenia: Movses Aristakesyan

Movses Aristakesyan, is the Chairman of the “Center for Economic Rights” NGO; he is also the Chairman of the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia. The CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia is a professional civil society structure, which was founded on 28 November, 2014 in Yerevan. Currently, 50 civil society organizations are members of the Coalition, and the Armenian Lawyers’ Association carries out the functions of the Secretariat.

Iravaban.net talked to Movses Aristakesyan about the work done by the Government in the field of fighting corruption.

– Mr. Aristakesyan, since 9 December, 2022, you are the Chairman of the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia. Can you tell us about the work the Coalition has carried out during this period?

– The following work was carried out in the past period after the 7th General Meeting of the Coalition.

• 8 sessions of the Governing Board were held, during which the most important issues of the anti-corruption policy in the republic, the course of implementation of the activities planned under the 2019-2023 Action Plan of the Coalition were discussed.
• As a result of the discussion of these issues the statements of the Governing Board of the Coalition regarding the most important socio-economic problems in RA and the corruption risks in them were adopted, which were disseminated both, in mass media and posted on the official websites of the Coalition and the ALA, the organization that coordinates the Secretariat of the Coalition.

In addition, by the decision of the Governing Board, presentation of the members of the Coalition to the public has begun within the framework of “Coalition member in the spotlight” series aimed at publicizing their activities, dissemination of their experience and advocating for the involvement of new members in the Coalition.

I would like to add that currently work is being carried out in the following directions.

• Review of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan of the Coalition in line with current challenges.
• Conducting research on legal inconsistencies and risks in the RA legislation, within the framework of which we have initiated the study of the activities of the “Legislation Development and Legal Research Center” Foundation of the Ministry of Justice, the main functions of which are the main functions of which are the analysis of the current legislation of the Republic of Armenia within the framework of implementation and development of the regulatory (legal regulation) policy of the RA, implementation of legal comparative analysis and accordingly the elimination of legal conflicts.
• Conducting investigations on legal regulations of the RA legislation containing corruption risks (for example, refund of income tax on mortgage interest repayment, 10% refund program for pensioners for non-cash transactions, application of the flat income tax regime, legislative regulations on non-progressive taxation, the annual budget program for repayment of deposits of the former USSR, etc.), based on the results of which we intend to apply to the RA Constitutional Court to discuss their constitutionality with at least 2 articles of the RA Constitution (Article 28 General Equality before the Law and Article 29 Prohibition of Discrimination regardless of property status or other social circumstances) .
• Investigation of the results of the 2022 competition of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council by the RA Prime Minister (hereinafter: the Council), ,
• etc.

Moreover, I consider it necessary to mention that these works were carried out and continue to be carried out without any financial support from both the RA Government and development partners, in the event that the same structures provide in non-transparent and non-competitive manner, large grants to other public organizations and CSO networks operating in the field. In fact, it can be recorded that the Coalition is continuously carrying out its activities aimed at fighting corruption in Armenia.

– You applied to join the Anti-Corruption Policy Council, but your application was rejected. How do you evaluate this decision of the Ministry of Justice?

– The members of the Coalition, remembering the omissions during the holding of former tender for the Council tender, when the Coalition was removed from its previous composition without justification and the same structures connected with the authorities were elected with violations, this time they tried once again to apply for the tender of the Council announced by the RA Government, thereby reaching out to the Government for the implementation of a real and systematic fight against corruption. 4 member organizations of the Coalition participated in that competition, as a result of which according to the relevant decision of 10 January, 2023 of the Commission established by the RA Ministry of Justice only the Armenian Lawyers’s Association (ALA) from the organizations of the Coalition that applied to the competition, was elected in the composition of the Counci. Applications of the other two organizations representing the Coalition (“Union of Advanced Technologies Enterprises” and “Center for Economic Rights”) were unlawfully rejected.

In connection with that decision, the “Center for Economic Rights” NGO applied to the RA Minister of Justice, Mr. G. Minasyan, from whom he received a “distracting” response-refusal as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia would have described. In fact, during the summary of the results of the tender, no clear, measurable, useful and up-to-date standards of the tender were defined by the order of the RA Minister of Justice, which the Commission members applied according to their discretion, in accordance with their experience and presumably agreements and/or instructions. Accordingly, the Coalition initiated an appropriate investigation, the results of which will be presented to the public.

– It is planned to develop the New Anti-Corruption Strategy soon. What are your expectations from the content of that document?

– In this regard, I would like to note that the Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan were planned to be implemented in 2019-2022. In fact, we started the 2023 without a proper strategy. ALA, the organization coordinating the Secretariat of the Coalition also spoke about it during the session of the Anti-Corruption Policy Council held in Jermuk on 10-11 February, 2023. As a result, on the basis of the proposal presented by the President of the ALA, on the instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, a working group was created by the order of the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, which is working from scratch on the development of the fifth Anti-Corruption Strategy and Its Implementation Action Plan. The interview about the results of that session is presented on the official websites of the Coalition and ALA

I would like to highlight an extraordinary fact in this regard. The Support to the Implementation of Armenia Integrity Project implemented with the financial support of USAID in 2022, allocated a grant in the amount of 29 million AMD to the Armenian office of “Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center” to develop the Anti-Corruption Strategy and Its Implementation Action Plan for the period of 2023-2026. Moreover, it was planned that broad sections of civil society should be actively involved in these activities. In fact, it can be assumed that the money of the American taxpayers was spent inefficiently with this program and did not serve its objective.

In terms of the content of the new strategy, it is also very worrying that the report on the implementation of the fourth Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Republic of Armenia for 2019-2022, which would have presented the existing problems of combating corruption, has not been presented to the public yet. Actually, a number of its actions were carried out in order to have quantitatively positive indicators, however, the impact of these actions has not been evaluated at the qualitative level, and they should be considered as formally implemented (see, for example, the Report on the Alternative Public Monitoring of the Actions of the Republic of Armenia Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2019-2022 to be performed in 2021 of CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia and the Armenian Lawyers’ Association).

Currently, the Coalition, with the expert support of ALA, is carrying out the work of summarizing the final report of the monitoring results of the evaluation of implementation of this strategy. However, it can already be noted that many activities in the most important directions of this strategy, such as transitional justice, vetting of judges and public employees, judicial and legal, including especially the police, reforms, anti-corruption education of the general public and representatives of civil society have not been implemented.

– Recently, several scandalous cases regarding the purchase of apartments by high-ranking officials were revealed. In particular, Suren Papikyan bought an expensive apartment in the center of Yerevan, which is worth 412,000 USD today. The minister bought it for 168 .000 USD, 100 million USD cheaper. Do you see corrupt elements here?

– There are apparent corruption risks, which, if confirmed, this way of working and behavior radically contradicts the values ​​of the Velvet Revolution and the promises given to RA citizens by the leader of the revolution and the political authorities of the day within its scope.

On the contrary, the following circumstance seems extraordinary. In his last press conference, the RA Prime Minister continuously insisted that the RA state budget has sufficient funds to implement any program. However, I regret to say that the Governing Bodies claim that it is due to the lack of financial resources that the amount of compensation for former USSR bank depositors was reduced by 400 million AMD in the 2023 budget compared to 2022 and only 1.1 billion AMD were allocated. Here a question arises. if the Prime Minister says that they do not have a problem with financial resources, then that official makes a decision on his own to reduce the allocation of budget funds for the solution of an important problem, such as the problem of compensation of deposits to former depositors, which has been dragging on for 30 years, which has already been solved long ago in all the former USSR the republics, as well as in Nagorno-Karabakh, with a significant excess of Armenian compensation rates at the expense of a loan from the RA state budget.

– On 31 January, 2023, the corruption perception index 2022 was published, where Armenia worsened its index by 3 points in 2022 and recorded another setback in the fight against corruption, getting only 42 out of 100 possible points. What does the worsened corruption perception index mean?

– In this regard, I consider it necessary to mention that on 2 February, 2023, the Coalition spread its regular statement through the mass media, in which it records the fact that the anti-corruption fight in the country is not effective, it is veiled and formal, as a result of which Armenia has regressed according to its perception index, presenting in detail the reasons for this regression.

I think it is worth mentioning the fact that systemic corruption in the country has not disappeared, as the authorities say. According to us, it has been transformed and has become a policy aimed at serving the personal and group interests of the members of the ruling party, their loyal and devoted persons in all spheres of state and public life. Moreover, new oligarchs have emerged alongside the old ones, who have become unique monopolists of the country’s economy.

Furthermore, corruption risks and concerns are also observed in the parties and CSO sectors through election fraud, veiled tendering of grants (or without it), when cases of patronage are observed among a group of CSOs affiliated with the government and development partners.

The authorities are turning a blind eye to electoral fraud taking place on various platforms, and according to press reports, they continue to do so during the elections of their highest body . 

– How do you evaluate the work with donors? Are CSOs getting enough support?

– I have to record that the donor organizations with their actions essentially violate the most important principles that are the basis for their activities, such as transparency and accountability, inclusiveness and participation. Development partners allocate large grants to government-affiliated NGOs without competition, without transparent and accountable procedures, and at the same time, the results and real impact of these grants are not tangible for the public.

Summarizing, I have to record that the risks of corruption and patronage apparently continue to lurk in the ranks of development partners or grant-giving organizations, which have their sponsored or affiliated CSOs in Armenia, which always become winners in such competitions.