1. "Open data" in official declarations; improving the electronic system of declarations on property, income and affiliated persons of high-ranking officials
| Commitment Start and End Date: | 12.2018 - 05.2021 |
| Lead implementing agency: | Commission for the Prevention of Corruption |
| Person responsible from implementing agency: | Lilit Aleksanyan |
| Title, Department: | Commission member, Corruption Prevention Commission |
| Email: | la.cpcarmenia@gmail.com |
| Phone: | +37412777721 |
Other actors involved
Other state actors involved
Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Government bodies
Civil society, private sector
"Transparency International" NGO (upon consent),
Anti-Corruption Coalition of Penitentiary Institutions of Armenia (upon consent),
""Asparez" (Arena) Journalists’ Club" NGO (upon consent)
Issue subject to regulation
Though reforms of the system of the declaration are continuously implemented, there are still a number of problems that exist in the sector.
In particular, data regarding the property and income of heads of communities and members of councils of elders of the Republic of Armenia, except for the property and income of heads of the communities with a population of 15.000 or more, are not known to the public. At the same time, there exist numerous publications relating to the issue of conflict of interests of the officials and members of councils of elders possessing funds of community budgets.
The scope of property subject to declaration, pursuant to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On public service”, is limited. According to the Law mentioned, declaring persons shall be obliged to declare only valuable property, the value whereof exceeds eight million drams or foreign currency equivalent thereto. That threshold value is very high, conditioned whereby the scope of the property subject to the declaration is not inclusive.
Under the existing legal regulations, gifts in the form of immovable, movable, and valuable property, as well as gifts received in the form of money are subject to declaration. For the most part, the scope of data subject to declaration (the content of declarations) mostly does not enable to reveal the relation existing between the donator and the declarant. At the same time, according to the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, No 1835-N of 15 December 2011, data concerning the donator shall not be subject to publication. There is a problem related to the protection of the data of a third party. As a result, this leads to various doubts and commentaries from the public. Whereas, if the data concerning the name of the donator, as well as the relation of the latter to the declarant are accessible to the public, the mentioned doubts will be eliminated. Besides, in regard to the protection of personal data of a third party donator, publication of the declared data in regard to his or her name implies specification of the relevant regulations stipulated by the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On personal data protection”.
Though the data concerning separate expenses (for example, acquisition of property) are subject to declaration under the conditions of the existing system for declaration of property and income, nevertheless, no requirement is prescribed for declaration of the data concerning a number of expenses (in particular, expenses related to education, healthcare, recreation, and other expensive services). Owing to the indicated circumstance, there arise (will arise) issues in the process of analyzing declarations in terms of the content thereof, including in terms of revealing the risks of illicit enrichment.
In the "Registry of Declarations," section of the website of the Commission, the search for declarations is carried out based on the following search characteristics of the official — "Name, Surname", "Position" and "Year". The "Registry of Declarations" section is not accessible to users yet in terms of selecting relevant declaration data according to a specific characteristic.
Main objective
Ensuring transparency of data subject to declaration.
Brief description of commitment
- Ongoing enlargement of the scope of declarants (members of councils of elders and secretaries of staffs of communities with populations of 15,000 and more);
- revision of the content of declarations, including in regard to reduction of the threshold value of valuable property subject to declaration and identification of donators with the declaring official (revelation of relation with the declarant), as well as in terms of the data concerning a number of expenses exceeding a certain cumulative threshold, being subject to the declaration;
- enlargement of the list of data of declarations subject to publication.
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment
Enhancement of public integrity
Relevance to OGP values
Transparency, accountability, technology
Ambition
By introducing the declarations registry interactive (searchable) instrument, the Commission expects to receive from the interested groups of the civil society more substantiated proposals and applications in regard to alleged violations by declaring persons of the requirements set under the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On public service". The number of applications submitted (through publications or by other means) to the Commission by interested groups of civil society is expected to grow as a result of the aforementioned, as well as legislative amendments. At the same time, it is expected to ensure rise of the level of accountability of declarant officials and increase confidence in them.
Potential Impact:
Implementation status
UN Goals
16.6 Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels