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CORRUPTION IS A MAJOR PROBLEM IN ARMENIA
08:38 pm 10 March, 2006
The Council of Europe’s Group of States against
Corruption (GRECO) has today published its evaluation
report on Armenia, with the agreement of the Armenian
authorities.The report concludes that in Armenia
corruption is considered a major problem.
The judiciary, the police, the customs service, the
tax inspectorate, education, healthcare, licensing and
privatisations are particularly affected. Despite the
adoption of a number of anti-corruption measures,
shortcomings still prevail in the existing
anti-corruption legislation and its implementation, as
well as in the organisation of the justice and law
enforcement systems.
The existence of serious obstacles to collecting
evidence, depriving offenders of the proceeds of
corruption together with the almost total absence of
significant results in prosecuting and indicting
individuals involved in serious cases of corruption
call for substantial efforts. In this respect, problem
areas include legislation on banking secrecy, special
investigative means, training for members of the law
enforcement agencies, witness protection, assets
declaration and the anti-money laundering regime.
Immunity enjoyed by judges, prosecutors, parliamentary
candidates, members of electoral commissions and even
candidate mayors and candidates for membership of the
council of elders (local council) is also a matter of
concern.
As for public administration, there is an urgent need
for implementing measures that deal with situations
where personal/financial interests or activities may
raise issues of conflict or partiality with regard to
public officials’ duties and responsibilities. It is
also necessary that public officials be informed and,
above all, trained on how and when to report instances
of corruption, or suspicions thereof, which they come
across in their duty and, to establish adequate
protection for public officials who report instances
of corruption (whistleblowers) in good faith.
The Armenian legal system does not provide for
corporate liability, so there is a need to establish
it for offences of bribery and money laundering and to
provide for effective, proportionate and dissuasive
sanctions, in accordance with the Council of Europe’s
Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
GRECO has addressed twenty-four recommendations to
Armenia and invited the Armenian authorities to report
on their implementation by September 2007.