The introduction of the Institute of Ethics for Officials in Armenia, and within the framework of which the cooperation between the RA Prosecutor's Office and the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption are giving their first results.

 

As previously reported, from June 29 to July 1, 2020, an open competition was held for replenishing the list of candidates of Prosecutors carrying out functions envisaged by Law “On confiscation of property of illicit origin”.

 

In the course of the study of the documents of people who applied for participation to the RA Prosecutor General's Office Staff, it was found out that one of the applicants submitted a statement certifying that he worked as a lawyer in the LLC from May 1, 2017 to May 1, 2019. It was found out that this person during 2016 - 2020 periodically applied to participate in open competitions in order to be included in the list of candidates, but never presented a document certifying his professional work activity.

 

Taking into account this circumstance, regarding his labor activity additional documents were requested from him. The citizen presented a statement from the RA SRC regarding his labor activity during 2017 - 2019. As a result, the Qualification Commission approved the application of the latter and allowed him to participate in the competition.

 

Under Article 38.1 of the RA Law “On the Prosecutor's Office”, with a view to participate in an open competition to fill up the list of candidates for prosecutors for the subdivision vested with the functions of confiscating the property of illicit origin, the applicants, along with other documents, also submits a completed ethics form envisaged by the RA Law ''On Commission for the Prevention of Corruption''. The Chairman of the Qualification Commission conducting the competition, within one day, submits to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption a questionnaire on the ethics of the person in order to receive an advisory conclusion within two weeks.

 

According to the conclusion of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, the data on the labor activity of this person in the LLC were not confirmed. Moreover, the commission noted that since 2019, he has been working as the head of the director of the LLC founded by him, at the same time stating that there is no other information about his professional activities.

 

On 01.07.2020 this applicant did not participate in an open competition, and the Qualification Commission could not get clarifications from him regarding the documents confirming his work experience.

 

Based on the fact that the above mentioned circumstances raised doubts about the submitted documents, a letter from the Chairman of the Qualification Commission, the RA Deputy Prosecutor General A. Harutyunyan was sent to the police with an instruction to prepare materials in the manner established by Art. 180 -181 of the RA CPC, and establish the grounds for initiating a criminal case under Art. 325 of the RA CC.

 

It should be noted that the prosecutors of the subdivision for confiscation of property of illicit origin will be the first officials in respect of whom the ethics verification process was carried out.