Government to press for separating business from power: Prime Minister
22.03.2012,
14:08
Armenian prime minister Tigran Sargsyan said a set of legislative changes, particularly, the establishment of State Commission on Ethics that is to work out and enforce a code of conduct for lawmakers, who will be required to respect laws, political opponents and moral norms of the public, will enable to gradually get rid of businessmen in government agencies.
YEREVAN, March 22. /ARKA/. Armenian prime minister Tigran Sargsyan said a set of legislative changes, particularly, the establishment of State Commission on Ethics that is to work out and enforce a code of conduct for lawmakers, who will be required to respect laws, political opponents and moral norms of the public, will enable to gradually get rid of businessmen in government agencies. The Commission has been set up in accordance with a government-drafted law passed by parliament last year.
"MPs, cabinet ministers, senior officials should not use their position for the benefit of their own businesses. To do this, we have passed a law that will enable us to implement this constitutional requirement and we have established the ethics commission," he said Wednesday at a news briefing in the parliament.
According to Sargsyan, ministers and MPs will submit to the Commission their income and property declarations. He said the measure will cover some 500 officials. The Commission will look into officials’ income declarations and compare them with their expenditures that will also have to be reported to it.
"We will also monitor whether the income of government officials increase or decrease during their tenures and whether this may be linked with their position," he said.
He also pointed out that under the law not only the incomes of senior officials, but also the incomes of affiliated persons will be monitored. The premiere reiterated that the ruling Republican Party will remain committed to its pledge that no business person will enter parliament on its ticket.
The five members of the state Commission on the Ethics of High-Ranking Officials have been nominated by Armenia’s prime minister, parliament speaker, prosecutor-general and the chairmen of two high courts. On January 10 the commission elected one of the members, Emil Babayan, as its chairman during the meeting with president Serzh Sargsyan. Babayan served as deputy minister of justice until the appointment. -0-
