Focus Group Discussion on the Gift Registry with the Participation of Representatives of State, Private Institutions and CSOs

On 23 January, the 1st focus group discussion on the commitment “Register of gifts related to the exercise of official duties of persons holding public positions and of public servants” of OGP-Armenia National Action Plan 2022-2024 was held in online format.

The main objective of the discussion was to jointly discuss with state and private institutions what actions have been taken so far to implement the commitment “Register of gifts related to the exercise of official duties of persons holding public positions and of public servants”, to highlight the problems of defining the order of registration and delivery of gifts as well as to submit and collect recommendations.

Project expert Suzanna Soghomonyan in her opening speech welcomed those presents for their willingness to participate the discussion.

The members of the Corruption Prevention Commission, the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, the RA Investigative Committee, the RA Anti-Corruption Committee, the National Assembly, the Office of the RA Human Rights Defender, as well as representatives of “Ucom” CJSC, “NGO Center” NGO, “Armavir Development Center” NGO attended the focus group discussion.

During the discussion, Narine Avetisyan, Head of the Control Department of the Public Employee Behavior of the Corruption Prevention Commission, presented the work done so far within the framework of the above issue, which was followed by a focus group discussion by the participants.

A number of questions were discussed regarding the access to the information to be included in the Gift Registry, their archiving, statistical management tools, changes to be made in the register and in general the regulations developed for the purpose of recording, receiving and evaluating gifts.

The focus group participants also discussed a number of questions regarding the criteria for evaluating gifts, permissible gifts and their price limits.

It should be noted that the focus group discussion was carried out within the framework of the “Multi-Faceted OGP Action: Open Justice & Anti-Corruption Commitments on E-Courts & Gift Registry” project implemented by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” (ALA) NGO with the support of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), funded by the European Union (EU) which is aimed at providing support to the Government in implementation of commitments e-justice and gift registry.