Open Data in Official Declarations (AM0035)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Armenia Action Plan 2018-2020
Action Plan Cycle: 2018
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials /Commission for Prevention of Corruption/
Support Institution(s): Staff of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development of the Republic of Armenia, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia "Transparency International" NGO (upon consent), CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia (upon consent), ““Asparez” Journalists’ Club” NGO (upon consent)
Policy Areas
Access to Information, Anti Corruption and Integrity, Asset Disclosure, Legislation, Open DataIRM Review
IRM Report: Armenia Transitional Results Report 2018-2020, Armenia Design Report 2018-2020
Early Results: No IRM Data
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): High
Implementation i
Description
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 Commitment Start: December 2018
Commitment End: August 2020
Lead implementing agency Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials /Commission for Prevention of Corruption/
Person responsible from lead implementing agency Armen Khudaverdyan
Title, Department Deputy Chairperson of the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials
Email: info@ethics.amPhone (+37410)524689
Other actors involved Other state actors involved Staff of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development of the Republic of Armenia, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia
Civil society, private sector "Transparency International" NGO (upon consent), CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia (upon consent), ““Asparez” Journalists’ Club” NGO (upon consent)
Issues subject to regulation Although reforms in the system of declarations (property, income and affiliated persons of high-ranking officials) are continuous, there are still several problems that exist in the sector.
In particular, the property and revenues of the heads and councils of elders of the communities of the Republic of Armenia are not known to the public, except for the property and revenues of the heads of communities with a population of 15,000 and more. At the same time, there are several indications in regard to the issue of conflict of interests of officials and members of councils of elders possessing funds from community budgets.
The scope of property subject to declaration, pursuant to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On public service”, is limited. In accordance with the specified law, declarants shall, among other properties, are obliged to only declare any expensive property with a value of more than AMD 8 million or more than the foreign currency equivalent thereto. The threshold value is very high, and due to this, the scope of property subject to declaration is not inclusive.
Based on the current legal regulations, gifts in the form of immovable, movable and expensive 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 (content of declarations) does not provide the opportunity to reveal the relationship between the donor and the declarant. At the same time, in accordance with Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No 1835-N of 15 December 2011, the data regarding the donor shall not be subject to publication. There is a problem regarding the protection of the data of a third party. As a result, this leads to various doubts and commentaries from the public. Meanwhile, if the data regarding the name, last name of the donor, as well as the relationship of the latter to the declarant are accessible to the public, the above-mentioned doubts on conflicts of interests will be dispelled. In this regard, although in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Armenia HO-206-N of 23 March 2018 "On public service", data on persons related to the declarant official through close kinship or in-law relationship: name, last name, father’s name, day, month, year of birth, relationship to the declarant official are also envisaged as general data subject to be included in a declaration; however, deciding on the issue of identifying (revealing the relationship to the declarant) the subjects (relative, godfather and others) beyond the scope of the above-mentioned persons as a donator, first and foremost implies revision of the content of a declaration. Besides, in regard to protection of personal data of a third party donor, 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”.
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” is not accessible to users yet in terms of selection of the relevant data in the declarations according to a specific characteristic.
Main objective Ensure transparency of data subject to declaration.
Brief Description of Commitment 1. 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).
2. Revision of content of declarations, including in regard to reduction of the threshold value of expensive property subject to declaration and identification of persons not affiliated to the declarant official through close kinship or in-law relationship as donators (revelation of relationship to the declarant).
3. 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 and user friendly) instrument, the Commission expects to receive from the interested groups of civil society more substantiated recommendations and applications in relation to alleged violations by declarant 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.
Promotes efforts for implementation of SDG Goals or Targets 16.6 develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
Verifiable and measurable criteria for performance of commitment Start Date: End Date:
Ongoing Actions
Publishing on the website of the Commission information on declarant officials who have not submitted a declaration for 2017-2020 or have submitted a declaration later than the prescribed time limit, the administrative liability measures applied by the Commission. December 2018 As of the end of each year — first quarter of the following year
Elaboration of the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia “On making amendments and supplements to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On public service”” and submission to the Staff of the Prime Minister in the context of enlargement of the scope of declarants, revision of the content of declarations, including reduction of the threshold value of expensive property subject to declaration and identification (revelation of relationship to a declarant) of persons not affiliated to a declarant official through close kinship or in-law relationship as donators. February 2019 June 2019
Elaboration of the draft on making amendments and supplements to Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No 1835-N of 15 December 2011 and submission to the Staff of the Prime Minister. October 2019 June 2020
Upgrading the search engine of the "Registry of Declarations" section of the Commission’s website at http://www.ethics.am, ensuring its interactive accessibility for users, developing and installing the software June 2019 August 2020
IRM Midterm Status Summary
1. “Open Data” in Official Declarations
Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [1]
Brief description:
- 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 content of declarations, including in regard to reduction of the threshold value of expensive property subject to declaration and identification of persons not affiliated to the declarant official through close kinship or in-law relationship as donators (revelation of relationship to the declarant).
- Enlargement of the list of data of declarations subject to publication.”
Milestones
1.1 Publishing on the website of the Commission information on declarant officials who have not submitted a declaration for 2017-2020 or have submitted a declaration later than the prescribed time limit, the administrative liability measures applied by the Commission.
1.2 Elaboration of the draft Law of the Republic of Armenia “On making amendments and supplements to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On public service”” and submission to the Staff of the Prime Minister in the context of enlargement of the scope of declarants, revision of the content of declarations, including reduction of the threshold value of expensive property subject to declaration and identification (revelation of relationship to a declarant) of persons not affiliated to a declarant official through close kinship or in-law relationship as donators.
1.3 Elaboration of the draft on making amendments and supplements to Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No 1835-N of 15 December 2011 and submission to the Staff of the Prime Minister.
1.4 Upgrading the search engine of the "Registry of Declarations" section of the Commission’s website at http://www.ethics.am, ensuring its interactive accessibility for users, developing and installing the software.
Start Date: December 2018
End Date: August 2020
Context and Objectives
Since 2014, asset and income declarations of high-ranking officials and their affiliates have been published on the website of the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials. [2] Since 2015, Armenia has introduced several measures to expand the scope of information disclosed in these declarations. [3] Legislative amendments passed in 2017 extended the circle of officials subject to declaring income and assets to include not only high-level officials, but also officials employed in senior positions. The amendments also included heads of communities with populations exceeding 15,000. [4]
In the current commitment, civil society organizations proposed to extend the circle of officials who are subject to declaration further, to include municipality staff secretaries and members of councils of elders in large communities. This was due to concerns of possible conflicts of interest of secretaries and councils of elders who may receive funds or incentives through various channels. Some receive funds from the head of the community or through jobs for their close relatives. [5] According to the law, membership in councils is a nonpaid position, but in practice, council members might be subject to specific expectations in return for voting on specific decisions.
This commitment calls for reducing the threshold of the valuable property subject to disclosure. The current threshold—8 million AMD (about 16,500 USD)—is considered too high compared to the average salary of public servants. [6] However, the commitment does not specify the new threshold that will be included in proposed legislative amendments. The amount discussed during meetings was 2-3 million AMD. [7]
Finally, the commitment proposes identification (revelation of relationship to a declarant) of persons who made donations to a declarant official. Current legal regulations stipulate that gifts in the form of immovable, movable, and expensive property—as well as gifts received in the form of money—are subject to declaration. However, according to Decision No. 1835-N, from 15 December 2011, data regarding the donors shall not be subject to publication, for privacy protection. The currently published data does not reveal the relationship between the donor and the declarant or whether the gift contains corruption risks. Meanwhile, if the donor’s name, as well as the relationship of the donor to the declarant, is accessible to the public, it could reduce the above-mentioned doubts regarding conflicts of interest. [8]
This commitment also continues the third action plan’s commitment on publishing the list of officials who did not provide declaration on time and on providing an open data format in the registry of declarations. Currently, one can search for declarations with the name and position of the official and the year the income and property was declared. The commitment calls for providing a searchable platform in which other search characteristics can be used. For example, an improved search function would allow searches by annual income level or specific property owned. Besides, the data would be extracted in a machine-readable format. This objective was set in Commitment 4 of Armenia’s previous action plan but was not fulfilled for several reasons. [9] The current commitment also aims to continue disclosing the lists of officials who fail to provide their declarations within the time specified by the law, as well as publishing information on the relevant sanctions applied.
This commitment has the potential to improve public access to information on public officials’ asset and income declarations. It would do so by extending the scope of information provided in declarations and facilitating access to information via technological improvements. Disclosure of the list of those who have failed to submit declarations on time and publication of sanctions applied can help to hold officials accountable. Such accountability could also be reached by making more officials subject to declaration requirements. If fully implemented, these efforts can improve civic oversight on declaration submission and any subsequent actions taken by the commission. For these reasons, the potential impact of the commitment is assessed as moderate.
Next steps
The disclosure of assets, income, and conflicts of interest by public officials has been continuously a major focus for civil society organizations working in anti-corruption and access to information. The government’s legislative initiatives to provide disclosure of assets by public officials and to ensure the oversight of possible illicit enrichment and conflicts of interest provide a basis for effective anti-corruption measures. However, steps should be taken to implement these measures in practice and ensure that all relevant institutions and establishments work effectively to prevent corruption.
One implementation constraint is the delay in the formation of the new Commission for Prevention of Corruption. According to the law, this commission should be established to replace the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials. The law afforded the new commission a larger scope of responsibilities and more domains of competence.
The IRM researcher recommends the following actions:
- Effective state and public oversight are needed to ensure implementation of the commitment brings better accountability of officials and prevents misconduct. Thus, it is highly necessary to ensure that the relevant anti-corruption body (whether the Commission for Prevention of Corruption or another) has the necessary power and ability to apply practical mechanisms of oversight and accountability.
- Stakeholders positively assess the intention to disclose more information. However, they suggest further extending the information in officials’ declarations to include geographical location of the estate property, as well as expenses not related to the purchase of property such as acquired expensive services (for example, tour packages, tuition fees at international universities). They also suggest including family members living separately in the list of declarants, although the definition of who constitutes family members would need to be redefined in law. [10]
IRM End of Term Status Summary
1. “Open Data” in Official Declarations
Completion: Substantial
In July 2020, the government cabinet approved amendments to enlarge the scope of declarants and the content of declarations. In September 2020, the Parliament passed the amendments in the first reading. [29] The Parliament finally adopted the amendments on 19 January 2021. [30] On 12 March 2020, the government adopted Decision N 306-N, which expanded the list of data to be published. Such data now includes information on the other party of the declared transaction (such as purchase of property or receiving a gift). [31]
In March 2020, the Corruption Prevention Committee published on its website a list of officials who did not submit declarations on time, along with the information on sanctions applied to these officials. [32] This committee replaced the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials in late 2019. The committee developed terms of reference for a new system for the registry of declarations. [33] However, it has not been implemented yet and is pending government approval and funding. [34]