WHO WILL FUND THE NEW ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY?

Lragir.am
07-11-2007 13:46:21

The Republic of Armenia set off to work out a new anti-corruption
strategy, said Gevorg Mheryan, an official of the president
administration in charge of anti-corruption affairs, on November 7
who took part in the presentation of the USAID Mobilizing Action
Against Corruption activity. Gevorg Mheryan told reporters, the
old strategy, the one adopted in 2001 has been fulfilled, and a new
strategy is now required. "The first anti-corruption strategy aimed
at a legislative reform, that is we are through with the second stage
of reforms, and in summer 2007 we were through with the goals set
by the anti-corruption strategy. The necessity for working out a
new anti-corruption strategy stemmed from the anti-corruption or
anti-corruption strategy commitments before a few international
organizations, GRECO, the World Bank, the OSCE," Gevorg Mheryan says.

According to him, the new program will aim to reveal the mechanisms
of legislative control. "In other words, we carried out reforms which
will be brought into being, their advantages and disadvantages will be
revealed, which will later allow avoiding mistakes in other efforts,"
Gevorg Mheryan says. According to him, the new strategy is in the
first stage of development, and it is still vague. "We think we will
have the full picture by May 2008," Gevorg Mheryan says. He says,
however, that one of the directions will be enhancing the controlling
function of the civil society. "Particularly, it will aim at completing
the legislation, improving the mechanisms which were introduced to
reduce corruption in the framework of the anti-corruption strategy,
to measure their effectiveness, controllability, disadvantages,
advantages. However, the full picture will be in May and June,"
Gevorg Mheryan says.

Gevorg Mheryan does not know the duration of the new strategy but
he says it will be a long-term strategy, probably designed for 5
years. Besides, Gevorg Mheryan does not know anything about the costs
and funding for the program.

The former strategy, for instance, cost 300 thousand dollars and was
funded by the World Bank. Gevorg Mheryan says for the new strategy
they have turned to donors. "They said they are willing to help us
with specialists, experts, funding. Certainly, it is going to be
transparent and traceable for donors. For instance, the OSCE office
will recruit experts on competitive basis, and the OSCE office will
finance them," Gevorg Mheryan says. He also says they are not focusing
on the necessary funding and are not waiting for the funding. By the
way, Armen Khudaverdyan, an official of the president administration,
heads the working group which drafts the new strategy.