US government supports Armenia in its efforts to fight against corruption

US government supports Armenia in its efforts to fight against corruption, allocating, through the United States Agency for International Development, USD 9.5 million for this purpose.

This was stated today during the conference entitled “Priorities of the Anti-Corruption Policy of Armenia” heralding the launch of the “Integrity of Armenia” Project, which was also attended by Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Grigoryan. The objective of the Project is to reduce corruption opportunities and to strengthen public demand for better governance and accountability in Armenia.

US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Lynne Tracy, Chairperson of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption Haykuhi Harutyunyan, deputies, civil society representatives, and others were also present at the launch of the project.

In his opening speech, Deputy Minister Grigoryan expressed his gratitude for the invitation and, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, welcomed the launch of the project. 

Within the context of development of the institutional system of the anti-corruption policy, the Deputy Minister presented the procedure for establishing the Anti-Corruption Commission, the regulation for prosecutorial oversight over the legality of criminal proceedings on corruption crimes, as well as the process of establishing the anti-corruption court.

Suren Grigoryan also touched upon the activities that were recently implemented to prevent corruption, stating that, as a result of improving the declaration system, the circle of declarants has expanded, a requirement to declare the expenditures incurred and the property actually owned has been introduced, the monetary threshold for declaring expensive property has been reduced to AMD 4 million instead of AMD 8 million. The legislative package adopted for the purpose of identifying the real beneficiaries of legal persons was also emphasised, according to which a requirement to identify real beneficiaries will be introduced in phases.

Summing up his speech, Suren Grigoryan also added — among the priorities of the anti-corruption policy — education, the implementation of public awareness programmes and the introduction of tools necessary for effective detection of corruption crimes.