OGP & the Republic of Armenia

The International community recently came up with an initiative to promote transparency and accountability of governments around the world: the Open Government Partnership. Countries that decide to join the partnership have to accept certain rules and adopt an action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... that will include commitments in line with OGP values to address principal challenge areas. The governments are expected to take on both new commitments and commitments that are part of their on-going programs and activities.

The Republic of Armenia joined the OGP in October 2011.The Government of Armenia (GoA) presented its national action plan to the international community in April 2012 in Brazil. Although the OGP strives to encourage government cooperation with the civil society, the Armenian action plan was developed with limited participation from civil society and without a public announcement about Armenia joining the OGP.  There was no public awareness-raising program.

Most of the commitments undertaken by the GoA within the OGP framework were pre-existing commitments, raising doubts about the added value of this initiative – OGP – for the international community, for the GoA, and for Armenian society. The value of the OGP especially declines when dull and unambitious commitments of tertiary or quaternary importance are included in action plans of the countries.  No commitments have been taken in such important areas as presidential or parliamentary electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... More, strategic negotiations about creation of alliances, joining unions or trade agreements, disclosing information, promoting transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and engaging society in decision-making.

The comments on the OGP website (after the draft OGP Independent Research Mechanism report was posted) reveal a deep distrust towards the Armenian government’s willingness to tackle corruption and the public has basis for distrust. The previous anti-corruption strategy for 2009-2012 ended with no visible results. The commentators emphasized the “tuning” nature of Armenian reforms that do not solve the systemic problems enrooted in a governance system that is estranged from society and the everyday needs of the people in the street. All the measures that the government took to reduce the risk of corruption did not result in reduction of corruption itself. It is not clear to what the GoA was referring to in its Action plan when it mentioned that it will “regularly discuss with civil society organizations the results on monitoring and research for assessing the level and extent of corruption” if the government doesn’t have any tool to measure the level of corruption. At the moment the government doesn’t have any documented anti-corruption strategy and many in the public are not interested in seeing another meaningless well-phrased strategy or concept paper.

Some commentators suggested ending assistance to  the government for its e-governance related projects because they don’t make the life of the ordinary people better. There was also a proposal to make the OGP part of the donor coordination process and ensure that donor community uses the OGP as an instrument to measure the success when designing new projects and / or coming up with new priorities. There was also a proposal to carry out a needs assessment before adopting an action plan and taking on commitments.

In 2009 the government announced about “introducing legislative changes on prescribing targeted severe sanctions for senior state officials engaging in business activities.” Despite the number of reports in the Armenian media about the existence of the problem over those years the Armenian public has not witnessed even one case in which action was taken against any senior state official for being engaged in business. The requests of civil society organizations (CSOs) addressed to Ethics Commission of High Level Officials were rejected on the grounds of lack of evidence or non-compliance with reality. In a recently published report the Armenian Human RightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T... Defender claimed that the Armenian taxPlacing transparency, accountability, and participation at the center of tax policy can ensure that burdens are distributed equitably across society. Technical specifications: Commitments related to c... and customs officials continue being illegally engaged in business.

The good news is that the international community still believes in Armenia and is still very supportive.  All e-governance development activities are carried out with the support from international organizations. Hopefully, one day the promotion of the e-governance agenda will help not only in improving services but will also allow disclosing information accumulated in databases of public service providers.

OGP can open an opportunity for member countries to present to the international community their successes in the areas of transparency and accountability. It is up to member governments and to OGP apparatus in Washington, DC to use this opportunity to promote transparency and accountability in the most ambitious and aggressive manner. One must hope that all the deficiencies associated with the first action plan were due to lack of experience and poor knowledge of OGP articles of governanceThe OGP Articles of Governance establish the mandate and high-level policies of the Partnership, including the Steering Committee, the Support Unit, and the Independent Reporting Mechanism. They also ... and values. Everything is a little bit difficult when done the first time. However, if the governments in member countries continue the practice of preparing their programs on government premises or mountain resorts only in cooperation with few selected CSOs without broad consultations with the wider public the OGP may become another initiative and institution where international bureaucrats make grand pronouncements “in close consultations” with officials of member governments who have little to no interest in seeing those pronouncements become reality.