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1st General Assembly

On May 13, 2016, the first “Government – Civil Society” anti-corruption conference was held in Yerevan, followed by the second general assembly of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition.

According to Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and Coordinator of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition Secretariat, “As a result of the April war, the harmful consequences of corruption in Armenia became visible to our society.”

“In this context, I consider it imperative to criminalize illicit enrichment in our country, which will allow not to dispossess illegally enriched current and former officials by illegal methods (which is currently being actively discussed by the wider society), but by legal means and only by court decisions, not only to return the illegal wealth accumulated by these officials to the state but also to subject them to criminal liability as prescribed by law,” he said.

According to Mr. Zadoyan, the second priority is to restore high public confidence in the justice system, including law enforcement agencies that assist in the administration of justice, and the third is to create an independent anti-corruption body based on the law. “The fourth important circumstance is the introduction of this institution based on the law on protection and encouragement of persons providing information. This institution will allow effectively fighting against corruption,” Mr. Zadoyan conveyed.

Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, expressed confidence at the “Government – Civil Society” conference that corruption primarily threatens Armenia’s national security.

“I believe that the fight against corruption should be the basis of national unity and consensus for Armenia,” says Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia.

He continues: “Recent events have shown that the causes of corruption in the defense sector are a national security issue for Armenia. Corruption doesn’t make you strong, corruption makes Armenia weak.”

The Minister of Justice assured the conference participants that the highlighted issues are in the focus of the government’s attention. “Within the framework of the civil society-state platform, two working groups have already been created that have things to do, in particular, the first concerns the discussion of the expediency of criminalizing illicit enrichment, and the second is the implementation of studies on the existing anti-corruption institutional system,” he noted and emphasized that the participation and support of civil society is one of the guarantees of success in every field.

Argo Avakov, Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador, in turn emphasized that civil society can also create power in society to fight corruption: “Cooperation between civil society, the state and the private sector has already been established, we hope that it will be further strengthened in the future,” he noted.

Then Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Krmoyan addressed the prospects of cooperation with specialized civil society organizations in reducing corruption risks and implementing the anti-corruption strategy, he presented the work done and future tasks.

The topic “The importance of the declaration institution in the fight against corruption: challenges and opportunities for cooperation with CSOs” was presented by Armen Khudaverdyan, Deputy Chairman of the Ethics Commission for High-Ranking Officials.

Kamo Asatryan, Head of the Anti-Corruption Programs Monitoring Department of the RA Government, made a report on the possibilities of cooperation with CSOs within the framework of the Government’s Anti-Corruption Council.

Karl Ulbricht, international expert of the “Multifaceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” program, spoke about “The possibility of introducing effective anti-corruption mechanisms and the possibilities of cooperation in this matter.”

He referred to the activities of two working groups that are taking steps towards criminalizing illicit enrichment and the Institutional system.

Mr. Ulbricht presented the international experience of Romania and Latvia. Referring to the cooperation between CSOs and the government, he noted that there are also other areas for cooperation, in particular, anti-corruption education, the business environment, as well as the possibility of joint work in developing monitoring indicators for the action plan.

Marat Atovmyan, national expert of the “Multifaceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” program, spoke about the possibility of introducing effective anti-corruption mechanisms and opportunities for cooperation in this matter.

He presented two anti-corruption institutional systems. Mr. Atovmyan proposes to create an independent anti-corruption body that will deal with all anti-corruption functions, namely investigative, educational and preventive. If the implementation of this option is impossible, according to him, it is necessary to create an independent anti-corruption body that will deal with educational and preventive functions, and reorganize the RA Special Investigation Service as a specialized structure for investigating corruption-related crimes. As an independent anti-corruption body, the option that the body is based on the basic foundation of the Ethics Commission for High-Ranking Officials, for example, the analysis of declarations, which, however, needs to be reorganized, can also be considered.

According to him, it is also essential to establish a council consisting of professional civil society organizations in the field of anti-corruption and human rights protection, which will oversee the activities of the anti-corruption body.

It has also been proposed to create a hotline that any person can call and report their concerns related to corruption manifestations.

Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Executive Director of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, presented the anti-corruption policy in Armenia.

According to him, the most important steps in the fight against corruption are intolerance towards monopolies.

Khachik Harutyunyan, an expert from the same organization, spoke about the challenges of overcoming corruption in the business sector. He spoke about the problems of the business sector, presented international experience and compared it with the Armenian reality.

Hayk Chobanyan, Deputy Director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises, presented the corruption problems of the business sector, noting that these problems can be solved only with the real participation of the business sector.

Arsen Abrahamyan, member of the board of the Union of Communities of Armenia and Mayor of Artik, presented the existing corruption risks in the local self-government sector, as well as the current work being done to reduce them, presenting as an example the introduction of effective mechanisms in Artik city, including those conditioned by modern technologies, that ensure public participation in the decision-making process.

Menua Brutyan, President of the “Union of Lori People” NGO, spoke about the challenges of anti-corruption struggle in the regions.

After the reports, questions were asked to the speakers. David Amiryan, Deputy Director of the “Open Society Foundations-Armenia” organization, asked Kamo Asatryan about how the Anti-Corruption Council cooperates with ministries, particularly the Ministry of Education and Science. Kamo Asatryan mentioned that they are guided by internal regulations and instructions.

A question was raised regarding the alert about corruption risks by the “Green Bean” company last year. Kamo Asatryan said that in this case, appropriate instructions were given to the ministries of finance, territorial administration and emergency situations to solve the problem, and finally, the representative of “Green Bean” expressed his satisfaction with the solution of the problem.

Questions were also raised about corruption issues in the judicial system. “I can say that nothing will progress if we don’t have an independent judicial system,” Karen Zadoyan noted regarding the concern.

The conferences were organized within the framework of the “Multifaceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” program implemented with EU funding and co-funding from the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

In summary, 140 representatives from state bodies, international organizations, political parties, civil society organizations and the media participated in the first part of the conference, and 45 representatives from international organizations, civil society organizations and the media participated in the second part. The regional groups of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition were represented at the conferences by delegates from the respective regions, who were elected as a result of meetings held in the regions.

The second part of the conference was entirely dedicated to discussing the achievements, problems and upcoming tasks of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenian CSOs (hereinafter referred to as the Coalition). Before convening the conference, in order to strengthen the Coalition and ensure the participation of representatives from various fields in it, by the decision of the Coalition members, the following CSOs had joined the Coalition:

  1. “Kapan Women’s Resource Center” NGO – Kristina Saghatelyan,
  2. Union of Information Technology Enterprises – Karen Vardanyan,
  3. “SME Cooperation Association” NGO – Hakob Avagyan,
  4. “Armcomedy” Cultural NGO – Sergey Sargsyan,
  5. “Legal Generation” Human Rights Protection NGO – Hayrenouhi Gevorgyan,
  6. Republican Union of Employers of Armenia – Gagik Makaryan,
  7. Union of Communities of Armenia – Emin Yeritsyan.

At the beginning of the conference, Karen Zadoyan, the coordinator of the Coalition’s secretariat, presented the regulations to the members and it was put to a vote. It was approved unanimously. Before the approval of the regulations by the Coalition, the Coalition operated based on the Working Procedure adopted within the framework of the Coalition’s first conference on November 28, 2014. The newly adopted Regulations have adopted a completely new management model. In particular, the management structure of the Coalition is: the conference, the board of directors, the committee of experts and the secretariat. The control over the activities of the Coalition is carried out by the Coalition’s conference. The new regulations entitle the conference to determine the number and quotas of the Coalition’s board of directors, elect the members of the Coalition’s board of directors for a term of one year, change the composition of the board of directors, and prematurely terminate the powers of the board members.

During the conference session, the conference approved the number of members of the Coalition’s board of directors, according to which the board consists of 15 member organizations. The proportion of member quotas in the board of directors was distributed by the decision of the conference as follows: 4 civil society organizations from the regions of Armenia, 3 from business organizations, 1 from IT sector organization, 6 from organizations of national importance and Yerevan-based organizations.

Then the nominations for board members were presented and the Coalition’s board of directors was elected by vote.

Thus, the Coalition’s board of directors consists of:

  1. “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO,
  2. “Freedom of Information Center” NGO,
  3. “Armcomedy” Cultural NGO,
  4. “Armenian Association of American Alumni” NGO,
  5. “International Center for Human Development” NGO,
  6. Union of Information Technology Enterprises,
  7. SME Cooperation Association,
  8. Republican Union of Employers,
  9. Union of Communities of Armenia,
  10. Small and Medium Business Foundation,
  11. “Democracy and Electoral Processes” International Center NGO,
  12. “LogoS” NGO (Shirak),
  13. “Union of Lori People” NGO (Lori),
  14. “Kapan Women’s Resource Center” (Syunik),
  15. “Center for Regional Development and Research” (Gegharkunik).

During the conference, the conference discussed the 2015-2016 monitoring program of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Civil Society Organizations of Armenia, the Concept of Sustainability and Financial Plan, as well as the structure of the 2016-2018 strategic plan.

In the upcoming month, it is planned to develop the Coalition’s three-year strategic plan based on the approved structure of the 2016-2018 strategic plan, approve the Coalition’s 2015-2016 monitoring program, and the Sustainability and Financial Plan.