This is not the right approach: the Prime Minister to Davit Ananyan

The government adopted the draft decision on "The Republic of Armenia's Anti-Corruption Strategy and the Program of Measures for its Implementation for 2019-2022" during today's meeting.

The strategy specifically addresses anti-corruption education and the sowing of negative attitudes towards corruption through awareness. The head of the State Revenue Committee, Davit Ananyan, noted that the SRC had not had the opportunity to present a more comprehensive opinion on one of the points of the draft. The Prime Minister reacted: "It surprises me when the issue comes to the meeting and it is said that it has not been discussed with us. At least there have been three discussions involving me. This is not the right approach. With this logic, we will be stuck in place; this is a political issue, a political decision has been made," said Pashinyan, adding that they should not take a step forward but then take two steps back.

In response to criticism that this draft would weaken the National Security Service and the Police, Pashinyan stated that, on the contrary, they will strengthen them. "We understood that the word vetting causes great allergies, we decided to keep the content but change the title. We say that there should be effective mechanisms to check the integrity of officials, and we are creating them step by step." The Prime Minister noted that through discussions, they concluded that this draft would definitely make the NSS a much stronger structure with serious, substantial functions. "National security should be the backbone of people's security," the Prime Minister concluded.