Liability shall arise if the Gift is prohibited and an Official has accepted it: Expert Discussion on the Process of Registration and Transfer of the Gift

Expert discussion on the process of managing gifts that become state and community property was organized within the framework of the “Multi-Faceted OGP Action: Open Justice & Anti-Corruption Commitments” project and “Open Gov Week” event. The discussion was organized with participation of the RA Ministry of Justice, “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO and the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia on 27 May, 2024.

Ms Elina Geghamyan, Adviser to the Minister of Justice, noted that as a result of focus group discussions, there is already one legislative package, which was fully adopted by the National Assembly.

The ban on accepting gifts for persons holding public office and civil servants has existed in the Law “On Civil Service” for a long time, but there were many problems in this area, which were also noted by international partners.

“In 2022, the Ministry of Justice initiated systemic reforms related to the institute of gifts. The concept of “gift” was clarified; it is now quite broad and includes any property advantage given to an official. The range of permissible gifts was also specified. In addition, the grounds for which the gift will become the property of the state were provided,” Elina Geghamyan said.

Details in the video.

Ms Lilia Afrikyan,  OGP Coordinator/Point of Contact of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, spoke about the Open Gov Week and noted that its objective is to talk about the need for openness and transparency of the authorities and the Government among the population of the partnership member states.

According to her, states recognize that achieving cultural change in the government system and among the population is very difficult in terms of working openly and transparently.

“Today we will discuss one of the commitments, which is the anti-corruption action. This open government partnership mechanism has provided considerable progress in our internal processes in Armenia over the past 10 years. Of course, many people are not informed that this or that process is the result of the OGP commitment, however the objective is not that, but the introduction of mechanisms,” Lilya Afrikyan said.

Details in the video.

According to Armine Danielyan, a Senior Specialist of the Department of Control of Conduct of Public Servants of the CPC, the Commission defined the procedures for transferring, registration, and evaluating gifts as early as in December 2023.

The introduction of an electronic register of gifts is also planned, the discussions on which have already been completed. It was implemented with the support of USAID.

“The Commission plans to complete the introduction of the register by December 2024, but the dates do not depend only on the Commission. An open tender for the implementation of the work has been announced, the first stage of which was completed on 24 May, but there were no applicants. The deadline has been extended for another 2 weeks,” Armine Danielyan said, adding that they found an interim solution.

Details in the video.

Ms Syuzanna Soghomyan, Lawyer/Anti-Corruption Expert of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association presented the ALA’s proposals. She noted that it is important to register in the register both the permitted as well as the prohibited gifts. According to the regulations, prohibited and allegedly unreceived/unaccepted gifts will not be registered.

“It is assumed that prohibited gifts will not be accepted, but what will happen if they are accepted?” The archiving process is problematic for us,” Syuzanna Soghomyan said.

The expert also spoke about the definition of individual gifts, the possibility of purchasing gifts, compiling statistics, archiving and ensuring publicity.

Details in the video.

Movses Aristakesyan, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, made a welcoming speech as well. He noted that a rather good program was implemented, because in recent years successful cooperation has been built between the Coalition, the Ministry of Justice, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association of and the Prime Minister’s Office.

“State bodies should be able to listen to the voice of the civil society. This is the issue of concern of the RA citizens within the framework of this program,” he said.

Then the representatives of the civil society asked the questions that concerned them.

Movses Aritakesyan inquired about the cost-effectiveness of this gift institute program.

In response to the question, Elina Geghamyan said that no additional costs were incurred in this process, and according to that, the cost-effectiveness can be highly evaluated.

Ms Anush Martirosyan, the President of “Media for Education” NGO, was interested whether there were any discussions and planned regulations regarding receiving gifts in the field of education, providing gifts to the heads of educational institutions.

The Advisor of the Minister of Justice mentioned that, unfortunately, teachers and principals are not considered to be persons holding public positions, so the regulations provided for by the legislation do not apply to them, but there are a number of regulations regarding integrity.

Details in the video.