The recently established Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC), within its mandate to develop and implement systems for the prevention of corruption in Armenia, is undertaking the voluminous and critical task of verifying and analysing property, income and interest declarations submitted by high-ranking public officials.
The methodology for this important exercise has been developed through the support from the EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia”. The Council of Europe expert worked in close consultation with the CPC members to provide a comprehensive manual for the verification of property, income and interest declarations of high officials.
Adapting technical assistance to the needs of its beneficiary, the Project additionally prepared a temporary “compact” version of the methodology to be used for the verification and analysis of declarations for this year only, while an e-system is not yet available due to current technical limitations. These temporary guidelines combine plausibility check and audit check of the declarations, to be conducted manually by the CPC in 2020. The Project also provided recommendations on situational declarations.
Two videoconferences were held in June and July 2020 to discuss strategic and technical aspects of the application of the guidelines and recommendations.
The project will continue to support this process by developing further guidelines for the e-system, a procedural instructions manual for the CPC staff members in charge of the declarations analysis, and conducting technical training to build the capacity of CPC members and staff on the verification of property, income and interest declarations of high-ranking public officials – and thus ensure the sustainability of this effort.
This support is provided within the framework of the EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance II Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia” (PGGII-ARM) which is funded jointly by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.