Deputy Minister of Justice presents the process of judicial and legal, and anti-corruption reforms at Public Administration Reforms Workshop

Deputy Minister of Justice Karen Karapetyan delivered a speech at a panel discussion that was part of the kick-off workshop devoted to public administration reforms and the Principles of Public Administration of the OECD/EU SIGMA initiative. The speakers touched upon the process of and achievements in public administration reforms, the main obstacles for implementation of the reforms and the activities aimed at overcoming those obstacles. Karen Karapetyan mentioned that public administration reforms, judicial and legal, and anti-corruption reforms are developed and implemented through broad-based participatory processes, ensuring their transparency and accountability. The strategies comply with international standards and the recommendations provided by the monitoring bodies (OECD, GRECO), evidence of which are the assessments given by those monitoring bodies. There are specific control and monitoring mechanisms for the reforms in the form of councils presided by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. The Deputy Minister of Justice touched upon the efforts that the Government has been making over the past years to unload judicial services and courts in order to ensure the principle of access to fair trial and the principle "Justice delayed is justice denied". Karen Karapetyan presented the activities carried out in this sector, particularly the increase in salaries of judges, the achievements made in the electronic justice sector and the introduction of alternative tools for settlement of disputes. The Deputy Minister of Justice also touched upon the cornerstone component of public administration and the SIGMA principle, i.e. the introduction of the integrity system and its component elements in the service sector, corruption prevention mechanisms, the whistle-blowing system and the mechanisms for protection of whistle-blowers, which are the basic principles of public administration predetermined by SIGMA. The role of the Corruption Prevention Commission in integrity checking, identifying corruption risks and preventing corruption was emphasised. Karen Karapetyan presented the sector-specific challenges, and the solutions for the mechanisms to overcome those challenges are provided in the new Anti-Corruption Strategy and the 2023-2026 Action Plan arising from the Strategy.