Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Dear colleagues,
On behalf of the Government, I welcome conference participants and wish you fruitful work.
Corruption is the most hazardous social illness facing mankind which determines the health status of a society. The deeper corruption, the sicker society and the more therapy is needed. It should be noted regretfully that no remedies are known against this evil, and each nation, each State and society has to find a special way of handling this phenomenon. Successful States may rightfully be called strong nations, and the ones with deeply rooted corruption would rather be called weak. The future of these States is endangered, and they are doomed to failure in a competitive environment as they cannot provide well-being to own citizens. The ever-shrinking world brings along mobility, especially for those citizens unwilling to put up with corrupt environments. Those people prefer to move away in search of such other environments as meet their own system of values. As a result, our society may be deprived of its healthy elements to aggravate the overall situation.
Which way is the government going to handle this evil? Our strategy can be divided into 3 important areas.
The first one involves the corps of State functionaries, inclusive of my colleagues and myself. Corruption will be difficult, if not impossible to cope with if we fail to be more exacting towards high-ranking public officials. This means we should lead the way in the fight against corruption Transparency is the best way to this end. We are intent on calling into being RA President’s electoral program’s key principle consisting in that we should begin from ourselves. We must reveal the existing weaknesses, be the first to speak about them and formulate the needed remedies. From this perspective, we have sent a bill to the National Assembly providing for more transparency in the activities of 500 high-ranking officials of the Republic Armenia. Drawing upon the best of international expertise, it implies the availability of a uniform electronic register through which 500 high-ranking officials will have to submit individual declarations. Assisted by advisers from the European Union, we have tried to make this bill as simple and easily applicable as possible. The President of the Republic of Armenia is scheduled to establish a commission featuring Armenia’s highly credited personalities who will watch over said 500 public officials’ activities. The members of this commission will follow closely media publications, eventual exposures, their declarations.
The law will be strict in asking for compliance with the constitutional norm of prohibiting MPs and ministers to get involved in business activities. We need additional legislative leverages, and we will introduce them. This is the first and foremost direction of anticorruption struggle.
Structural reform is the second major direction. I mean first of all those structural reforms concerning State bodies. We have undertaken the second stage of public sector reform which covers the introduction of the institute of civil service. We have received tangible technical assistance from the Government of the United Kingdom. Considering it, we came to the following conclusion: it provides extremely valuable materials. Unfortunately, we have implemented only the first stage of the program. We are still far from the expected positive outcome simply because the second and third stages of these reforms have not yet been carried out, namely those stages implying higher performance on the part of State officials and employees, creation of motivational bases for stimulating hard-working, honest staff and, on the contrary, penalizing those unable to honor their duties. The lack of these motivational mechanisms interferes with the efficiency of the institute of civil service. Please note that there is a natural counteraction: people are reluctant to behavioral changes. This problem is especially hard to address when at stake are all the layers of civil servants. It seems to be obvious that structural reform should be started from the system of governance. Our steps include the following actions: firstly, it is the specification of functions of public officials in all ministries, departments. I must state regretfully that the ministers and ministries fulfill different functions. We can witness some confusion in the functions of our ministries and agencies. Often we can state that the ministries carry out such functions as are inherent in agencies. We can also find out that there are ministries providing services, while many agencies are busy developing and implementing policy. This is why we have undertaken said reforms.
For the first time in 2009, we heard the first 6 months’ performance reports of individual ministries. It was the first such experience in the Republic of Armenia, and we are convinced that it will prove more productive in the second half-year. This is quite a difficult effort because the procedure of describing business-functions, sub-functions, individual jobs, specifying responsibilities is a complex task. Unfortunately, we have not yet formulated such possibilities in the Republic of Armenia. Internal audit would be impossible to carry out without stipulating such functions as might enhance public sector efficiency. We are making huge efforts toward implementing the structural reform. Certainly, the results are not yet visible to the society, though we are convinced that due to our consistent efforts, we shall have a qualitatively different system of governance within 3 years, which may check corruption risks considerably.
Structural reforms imply amending financial mechanisms. When introducing the 2010 State budget bill to the National Assembly, I noted that next year’s target sectors will include health services and education, too, the financial mechanisms of which are not only inefficient, but also full of corruption risks.
In formulating financial orders for the systems of public health care and education, the State reserves itself the right to use fees lower than the market ones, even below the cost-price. Quite naturally, these establishments are compelled to fill the State-ordered financial gaps in different ways. Each such entity finds a way - often illegal – for filling these gaps. We are thereby generating corruption risks. We have put these concepts into circulation. Here again there is a great inertia of counteraction because people have already put up with such working modes.
What we are asked to do is only to increase the level of financing. This will lead to poor consequences if we fail to operate radical changes in the mechanisms of financing. Our purpose is too clear: the State has no right to cause market skews. When on the market, the State must keep by a routine behavior like any other agent. And we will have to pay a market price for marketable services.
The third direction of our anticorruption struggle is the public-at-large. Here we claim serious changes as we can state that society is not active enough in combating corruption phenomena. Our society is tolerant to corruption. Moreover, study has shown that corruption is not included in the list of first five negative phenomena of highest concern to the public. It is a very serious signal for all of us, because to my mind it is the evil number one on the way to building a strong statehood. I mean we should be able to create such an atmosphere in the Republic of Armenia as would be directed against corruption. Unfortunately, thousands of our compatriots wish to get a State post in order to have a State post. They criticize the government not because they want to cure social illnesses, but because they are eager to have access to government privileges. This problem is overshadowed in the society. I am convinced that gatherings like this should promote a corresponding atmosphere in the society, reveal and expose corruption phenomena. From this point of view, public organizations can be of certain help to the government. Frankly speaking, I sometimes note with great regret that even non-governmental organizations yield to temptation by making political statements as they declare that they are called to fight against corruption. It is clear to me merely because I can see that our society is more concerned about political events and intrigues. Working in this area, the NGOs can find a corresponding audience. But further on it turns into illness. Instead of cooperating with the government, they find themselves in the political field. We constantly see political estimations of government actions. Political estimations is what we have in plentitude in our country. In the National Assembly and outside it, political parties and their followers, both coalitional and oppositional, are voicing such criticism. But let us admit that it is not enough for having a healthy society. We need such organizations as will fight against corruption without making speculations whatsoever. Otherwise this field remains open, and we have a say in it. In particular, I would like to mention the anticorruption commission headed by the Prime Minister. This anticorruption commission has one extremely important institute – the institute of monitoring which is due to involve civil society, too. Apart from those political forces represented in the National Assembly, and besides the oppositional political forces, we are also inviting the NGOs which are just called to struggle against corruption phenomena. The government is well aware of the importance this institute of monitoring. It is crucial that the anticorruption program which we have developed with the international organizations involves not only the government or its members, but also non- governmental organizations. It is extremely important that civil society joins us in the ownership of this document because they participated in development of this document, and all the proposals submitted by them have been included in it. During the latest sitting of the anticorruption council we once again invited them to make suggestions and recommendations. In the opinion of international experts, this document meets the best standards and, in essence, includes all those correctly specified spheres and directions in which it is necessary to carry out structural reforms. The experts of the European Union share in my concern. This is an extremely large and complex document. It is necessary for us to set some major targets - those key tasks which will enable us to carry out basic changes so that we could demonstrate our aptitude of success. I think that proceeding from such recommendations, the anticorruption commission will submit a similar document to the public-at-large.
In conclusion, I would like to welcome once again all the participants of this forum. Forums like this are held in almost all the States of the world, under the recommendation and patronage of the United Nations. I wish productive work to all of us.
Thank you.
