TIAC recomends making Armenian Control Chamber more independent
On April 30, Transparency International Anticorruption Center (TIAC), with the financial support of the European Union, “National Integrity System (NIS) Assessment Armenia 2014” report,” examining anti-corruption mechanisms and safeguards across 13 institutions (including the Chamber of Control) in Armenia. The report presents the NIS methodology, NIS concept, results and weaknesses of the pillars, including Legislature, President, Executive, Judiciary, Civil Service, Law Enforcement Agencies, Central Electoral Commission, Human Rights Defender, Chamber of Control, Political Parties, Media, Civil Society, and Business. It says the Chamber of Control remains one of the strongest pillars and although its practical independence remains on an average level, it has high levels of transparency, accountability and integrity. The report says the Chamber of Control continues to carry out is mission in a due order. “Compared with other institutions, the Chamber of Control can be viewed as a more independent and transparent structure. The major findings of the study are: Despite having sufficiently well formulated anti-corruption legislation, there are serious shortcomings in its effective implementation. The judiciary remains corrupt and not free from the influence of the authorities. The prosecution for the corruption-related crimes is alarmingly low. In practice, for the most of the pillars, with some exceptions, there is lack of accountability, independence and integrity. At the same time, in practice, the level of transparency among the majority of the pillars is relatively high. Civil society and media remain very weak as watchdogs against corruption. They need fundamental reforms to become effective pillars of Armenian NIS. Based on these and other findings, a number of recommendations aimed at strengthening the Armenian NIS are proposed, including:
- Make reality the distinction between business and high level public officials.
- Enhance prosecution of corruption offenses, in view of the fact that the statistics for the first half of 2013 revealed a very low number of prosecutions of corruption offences.
- Make the Chamber of Control more independent by considering providing constitutional immunities for the members of the Chamber.
