The Council of Europe experts’ body on combating corruption publishes
report on Armenia
Strasbourg, 10.03.2006 – 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.
The full report is available at GRECO’s website:
< ;
ED017a06