Rustam Badasyan: "Checking of integrity will help to increase public confidence in state bodies"

Today, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan participated in the discussion on the topic of "Strategic Planning of the Activities of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption". Chairperson of the Commission Haykuhi Harutyunyan, member of the Supreme Judicial Council Hayk Hovhannisyan, members of the Commission, as well as representatives of state and international organisations also participated in the discussion.

The Minister expressed gratitude to the Commission for inviting him to the event and attached importance to the formation of institutional bodies envisaged by the Anti-Corruption Strategy which, through their future activities, will raise the level of the fight against corruption to a qualitatively new level.

According to the Minister, failure in the fight against corruption in Armenia has also been mainly conditioned by the lack of sufficient professional preparedness and lack of sufficient knowledge about the existing international mechanisms, and implementation of the function for prevention of corruption has been underestimated, as importance has always been attached to the investigation into crimes. "Today, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has the mission to eliminate this misunderstanding, and I believe the Commission will substantiate the opposite through its activities," Rustam Badasyan stated.

Alongside educational and awareness-raising events, out of the functions of the Commission, the Minister attached importance to the analyses of declarations and the checking of integrity and emphasised that, if implemented successfully, analyses of declarations and checking of integrity will increase public confidence in not only the Commission, but also the bodies operating with employees whose integrity has been checked.

In this regard, Minister Badasyan reaffirmed the willingness of the Ministry of Justice to assist in ensuring effective activities of the Commission on a daily basis.