Rustam Badasyan participates in public discussion on "Anti-Corruption Committee: Issues of Formation of the Structure"

01/02/2020

Today, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan participated in the public discussion on "Anti-Corruption Committee: Issues of Formation of the Structure". The event was organised by the "Union of Informed Citizens" advisory NGO.

Let us remind that the Ministry of Justice has submitted a package of draft laws "On the Anti-Corruption Committee" for public consideration.

According to the Minister, the existence of political will serves as a necessary precondition for the fight against corruption, but many times the Government has stressed that this is not enough for an effective fight against corruption. "It is necessary to develop state institutions that will be able to, regardless of the rearrangements of political forces, lead an effective fight against corruption, have specialised employees and have procedures for selection and appointment that will ensure availability of non-politicised persons possessing proper professional knowledge," Rustam Badasyan stated.

Touching upon the peculiarities of the Anti-Corruption Committee, the Minister of Justice stated that investigative and operational intelligence functions will be combined within this institution. "The second component is the procedure for selecting specialists on a competitive basis, meaning that competition commissions will be set up for the selection of the head of the anti -corruption body, as well as for the transfer of experienced investigators and the selection of new specialists," Rustam Badasyan emphasised.

During the public discussion, the Minister also touched upon the envisaged social guarantees and the functions of the subdivision for checking internal security to be established within the composition of the Anti-Corruption Committee. In regard to the latter, Rustam Badasyan informed that a new tool may be introduced for constant verification of integrity of the employees of the anti-corruption body; with the new tool, corrupt offers may be made to the employees, and if corruption risks emerge, the issue of subjecting the particular employee to disciplinary liability and dismissing him or her from the Anti-Corruption Committee will be considered.

Afterwards, the Minister answered questions from the participants of the public discussion in a question-and-answer format.