Information on Officials' Foreign Business Trips to Be Restricted

A draft of a decision to amend the Prime Minister of Armenia's Decree No. 1230-N dated September 19, 2018, has been presented on the unified platform for the publication of legal acts. This decision proposes to restrict information regarding the foreign business trips of officials from government and territorial administration bodies, as reported by 168.am.

The brief descriptions of the draft indicate that the Ministry of High-Tech Industry initiated activities to identify ‘sensitive and risky’ information available on e-gov.am. Following this identification and clarification, corresponding amendments were made to the Prime Minister's decree to restrict the aforementioned information.

The purpose of the amendment is to prevent new risks arising from the leakage of personal and state data related to the recent war and to avoid the use of such information in various economic and political analyses that could harm the state interests of Armenia. Access to this information may be granted upon additional inquiry, provided appropriate justifications regarding the necessity and purposes of the disclosure are presented.

The 11th point of the Prime Minister’s decree will be amended as follows: “The Prime Minister's Office publishes the report submitted by the Prime Minister’s Office in the ‘Reports on Business Trips’ section of the Government of the Republic of Armenia’s website www.e-gov.am within three days, except in cases where the report contains state, official, or other legally protected confidential information.”

With the proposed amendment, point 11 will read: “The Prime Minister’s Office publishes the report submitted by the Prime Minister's Office in the ‘Reports on Business Trips’ section of the Government of the Republic of Armenia’s website www.e-gov.am within three days, excluding points 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Appendix No. 2 of this decision, as well as in cases where the report contains state, official, or other legally protected confidential information.”

In other words, the purpose of the trip, topics of discussion, meetings, speeches, issues raised or discussed, decisions made during meetings or gatherings, agreements, signed documents, proposals, suggestions for further actions, methods, forms, timelines, responsible parties, and expected outcomes will not be specified.

This legislative initiative has been realized through collaboration between the Ministry of High-Tech Industry and the National Security Service.