Corruption Prevention Commission of the Republic of Armenia

Functions

• The maintenance of the declaration registry
• regulation of the declarations analysis process and publication of the declarations:
• detection of conflict of interests of the high-ranking officials (except for conflict of interests of members of Parliament, members of Constitutional Court, judges and prosecutors):
• detection of violations of ethics rules by high-ranking officials (except for the violations of ethics rules by the members of Constitutional Court, judges and prosecutors in the process of fulfillment of their official responsibilities, as well as violations of ethics rules by the members of Parliament):
• submission of recommendations on elimination and prevention of conflict of interests and violations of ethics rules of high-ranking officials to the President, the National Assembly and the Government of Armenia:
• detection of the violations of ethics rules (not related to the fulfillment of their official responsibilities) by the members of Constitutional Court, judges and prosecutors as well as submission of recommendations on the elimination and prevention of those violations to the President, the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor General of Armenia:
• within its authorities, publication of information on detection of violations of ethics rules and conflict of interests as well as actions taken related to those violations:
• Adopting the requirements for filling in the declarations and the procedure of their submission:
• examination of the cases related to administrative offences, as well as imposing of administrative sanctions, as set by the legislation, for the failure to submit property, income and related persons’ declarations of declarant high-ranking official, as well as property and income declarations of their related persons to the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia within the prescribed time frame, as prescribed by the current law, or submitting of the declarations with the violation of the requirements and order of declaration filling procedure or for providing incorrect or incomplete information in the declaration.

JURISDICTION/THE COMMISSION HAS THE RIGHT TO
• Demand and obtain all the necessary documents related to the issues being discussed in the Ethics Commission from state or local self-government bodies, state or community institutions and government organizations or their officials:
• demand from competent state or local self-government body, state or municipal institution and government organizations or their officials (excluding the Constitutional Court members, courts, judges and prosecutors) to conduct verifications, studies, and expert analysis on the aspects to be clarified that are related to the issues being discussed at the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials and to send the results:
• the members of the Ethics Commission have a right to visit any state or community institution or organization without any constraint as well as get familiar with any material and document related to the issues being under the discussion at the Ethics Commission. The members of the Ethics Commission can get familiar with the state, service, commercial or any other secret information protected by law according to the legislation of Armenia.

DECLARATION ANALYSIS
The Commission conducts verification of the credibility and completeness of the data on filling and submission process of the declaration in accordance with the methodology and order established by the Commission.
During the declaration analysis process, the Commission has the right to demand and obtain from competent state or local self-government body, Central Depositary and other persons owning the right to maintain the registry of securities owners (nominees), credit bureaus (including through electronic inquiry method), information, documents related to the declarant high-ranking official, as well as his/her family members, excluding the cases as prescribed by the Republic of Armenia Law on “Banking Secrecy”.
The interoperability of the Ethics Commission’s electronic information data base to the data bases of other state and local self-government bodies, and the above mentioned organizations, as well as the Commission’s online accessibility to the data subject to declaration are ensured in the declaration analysis process.

INSTITUTING A PROCEEDING
The Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials institutes a proceeding on its own initiative. The Ethics Commission can institute a proceeding on the violation of ethics rules on the basis of:
1. Application of any person,
2. օn its own initiative,
3. հigh-ranking official’s application to study the issues related to violations of ethics rules by himself/herself.
The conclusion of the instituted proceeding is given by the Commission within 1 month. The conclusion on the violation of the ethics rules by the high-ranking official and the decision based on it by the competent official of the respective state institution, in case there is such, shall be published on the website of the respective state institution within 5 working days following the adoption of that decision. If the Ethics Commission discovers any elements of crime during its examination, it forwards all the documents to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia. The Ethics Commission sends the conclusion on the violation of the ethics rules to the President of the Republic of Armenia and to the superior of the high-ranking official.
If during the proceeding on the administrative offence, the Commission concludes that there are elements of intentionally non-submission of the declarations or providing of false information in the declaration or concealment of the data matter of declaration, the Commission, upon a well-reasoned decision, immediately, no later than within 3 days, forwards all the materials of the proceeding to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia adopting a decision to suspend the proceeding. Upon the receipt of the decision on the rejection of instituting a criminal case, suspension of the criminal case, termination of the criminal proceeding or discontinuation of the criminal prosecution, the Commission, within 5 days, restarts the suspended proceeding, and in case of receiving of accusative judgment entered into legal force, within the same period, discontinues the proceeding.