Unified electronic platform for whistle-blowing corruption crimes launched

The Unified Electronic Platform for Whistle-blowing (www.azdararir.am) was presented in Yerevan today. Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan, Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Suren Krmoyan, Country Manager of the World Bank for Armenia Sylvie Bossoutrot, Senior Prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office Armen Nikoghosyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Armenia Judith Margaret Farnworth, as well as representatives of state bodies and civil society participated in the event.

Suren Krmoyan read out the speech of the Deputy Prime Minister to the participants of the event, noting that the launch of the platform is a major step to achieve the goals of the Programme of the Government. "The velvet revolution helped to eradicate systemic corruption, and today, the Government has set a new task, that is, to create institutions and build awareness to the extent that they prevent any manifestation of corruption. Consequently, the actions of the Government will be aimed at enhancing the results of the fight against corruption and the institutional system and providing the bodies fighting against corruption with a proper toolkit," cited the Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister, adding that, on this path, importance is attached to the application of modern and innovative technologies.

Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan expressed gratitude to the attendees for participating in the event and for contributing, with their presence, to the major task of implementing an anti-corruption policy. The Minister also expressed gratitude to the World Bank and the Ambassador of the United Kingdom for making the event possible.

According to Artak Zeynalyan, the Government is well aware of the danger and irreversible impact of corruption on rule of law, human rights protection and economic development, and added that everybody has witnessed the consequences of the negative impact of corruption in practice.

"With a view to leading the fight against corruption in a co-ordinated manner, importance is attached to the combination of strategic and institutional steps. In this context, I attach great importance to the launch of the Unified Electronic Platform for Whistle-blowing," Artak Zeynalyan noted, adding that, with this platform, a person has the opportunity to report a crime anonymously, and there is an opportunity to move revelation of corruption crimes to a qualitatively new stage.

The Minister assured that the Government, namely the Ministry of Justice, will guarantee the anonymity of a person by encoding his or her Internet Protocol Address, while the Prosecutor General's Office will guarantee assessment and verification of the content of the report.

Summing up, the Minister of Justice said he expects everyone’s active participation in terms of showing intolerance towards corruption.

Senior Prosecutor Armen Nikoghosyan touched upon the functions and powers of the Prosecutor General's Office in regard to the platform, noting that the launch of the www.azdararir.am platform is a very important step for ensuring structural grounds for the fight against and prevention of corruption.

Representative of the World Bank Sylvie Bossoutrot also attached importance to the launch of the platform and noted that Armenia has achieved great success in the fight against corruption following the velvet, non-violent revolution. "This platform will be fully available for the public; it will help to record-register the reports on possible corruption crimes and to transfer them to the relevant body for processing, if there are grounds for that,” Sylvie Bossoutrot noted.

During the event, representative of the Ministry of Justice Arpi Sargsyan presented the opportunities for using the electronic platform, after which videos raising public awareness about the whistle-blowing system and the guarantees for protection of whistle-blowers were shown.