United Nations Convention Against Corruption
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United Nations Convention against Corruption Self-assessment Name: Corruption Country: Armenia Date of creation: 25.09.2012 Assessor: Ministry of justice Assessor Position: Deputy Minister Release: 2.0.18.0 Comments: Completed self-assessment checklists should be sent to: Corruption and Economic Crime Section Division for Treaty Affairs United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Vienna International Centre PO Box 500 1400 Vienna, Austria Attn: PAPADIMITRIOU Panagiotis Telephone: + (43) (1) 26060-4293 Telefax: + (43) (1) 26060-74293 E-mail: [email protected] III. Criminalization and law enforcement 15. Bribery of national public officials 63. Subparagraph (a) of article 15 Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally: (a) The promise, offering or giving, to a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties; Has your country adopted and implemented the measures described above? (Check one answer.) (Y) Yes Please cite the applicable policy(s), law(s) or other measure(s). Please cite the text(s) The provisions of Article 15 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (hereinafter: the Convention) are reflected in Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia(hereinafter:CC). In accordance with article 15,paragraph (a), Active bribery of national public officials is criminalised in two different articles:312 (Giving a bribe) and 312.1 (Giving unlawful remuneration to a public servant who is not an official) of CC. In particular, article 312 of CC provides liability for giving a bribe. The crime isdefined as follows: Giving a bribe to an official, i.e. promising or offering or granting money, property, property rights, securities or any other advantage, personally or through an intermediary, for the official or another person, for the purpose of performing or not performing an action by the official within the scope of his authorities, in favour of the person giving the bribe or the person represented by him, or favouring the performance or non-performance of such action by the official by use of his official position, or for the purpose of patronage or connivance, shall be punished by a fine in the amount of 100-fold to 200-fold of the minimum wage or by detention for a term of one to three months or by imprisonment for a maximum term of three years. The person, giving a bribe, shall be exempt from criminal liability in case the bribe has been extorted or in case the person has voluntarily informed law enforcement bodies on giving bribe not late after three days. This provision of the CC, in essence, expresses the main form of active bribery. In accordance with article 312.1 of CC, Giving unlawful remuneration to a public servant, who is not an official, i.e. promising or offering or granting money, property, property rights, securities or any other advantage to a public servant, personally or through an intermediary, for himself or another person, for the purpose of performing or not performing an action by the public servant within the scope ofhis authorities, in favour of 04.12.2012 Armenia Corruption Page 2 of 144 action by the public servant within the scope ofhis authorities, in favour of the person giving the remuneration or the person represented by him, or favouring the performance or non-performance of such action by the public servant, who is not an official, by use of his official position, or for the purpose of patronageor connivance shall be punished by a fine in the amount of 200-fold to 400-fold of the minimum wage or by imprisonment for a maximum term of three years with deprivation of the right to engage in certain activities. The person, giving unlawful remuneration , shall be exempt from criminal liability in case the unlawful remuneration has been extorted or in case the person has voluntarily informed law enforcement bodies on giving unlawful remuneration not late after three days. Both articles foresee aggravated sanctions if the offence was committed on a “large scale” or“particularly large scale” (which relates to the value of the bribe involved) or by an organised group. As regards the reference the minimum wage in the various provisions of the CC, it is understood to amount to 1000 Armenian Drams (ADM), which is approximately €24. As indicated above, the provisions on bribery of national public officials differentiate between officials (Article 312) and other persons employed in public service - reffered to as <<public servants>> -(Article 312.1) and provides two different definitions for these categories of personnel. The definition of an official is provided by Article 308, paragraph 3 CC, which deals with the offence of <<Abuse of official authority>>. In accordance with article 2 of the Convention, “Public official” shall mean: 1. any person holding a legislative, executive, administrative or judicial office of a State Party, whether appointed orelected, whether permanent or temporary, whether paid or unpaid, irrespectiveof that person’s seniority; 2. any other person who performs a public function,including for a public agency or public enterprise, or provides a public service, as defined in the domestic law of the State Party and as applied in the pertinent area of law of that State Party; 3.any other person defined as a “public official” in the domestic law of a State Party. However, for the purpose of somespecific measures contained in chapter II of the Convention, “public official”may mean any person who performs a public function or provides a public service as defined in the domestic law of the State Party and as applied in the pertinent area of law of that State Party; In accordance with article 308, paragraph 3 CC the following persons shall be deemed as officials: 1. persons performing functions of representative of the authorities on a permanent, temporary basis or by special authorisation; 2. persons performing organisational-managerial, economic-administrative functions on a permanent, temporary basis or by special authorisation in state bodies, local selfgovernment bodies, organisations thereof, as well as in the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia, other troops and military units of the Republic of Armenia; Therefore, as noted in article 5, paragraph 1. subparagraph 4 of “Law on Public Service” Public Servant is a person occupying a position envisaged by the Roster of State and Community Service Position or in the manner prescribed by law a person in the 04.12.2012 Armenia Corruption Page 3 of 144 Service Position or in the manner prescribed by law a person in the Personnel Reserve of Public Service”. Essentially, article 312.1 of CC has to be considered in the light of the article 15, paragraph (a) of the Convention. Please provide examples of cases and attach case law if available. If available, please provide related statistical data on number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions/acquittals. Please provide per annum figures, as available. Please describe how such information is collected and analysed. · During the period of 2010 one Armenian citizen was punished by a fine under the Article 312 of Criminal Code. · During 2011 five Armenian citizens were sentenced under Article 312 Criminal Code and were punished by inprisonment. · During 2012 (till september) one Armenian citizen was punished by inprisonment under the Article 312.1. of Criminal Code. 64. Subparagraph (b) of article 15 Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally: ... (b) The solicitation or acceptance by a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties. Has your country adopted and implemented the measures described above? (Check one answer.) (Y) Yes (b) The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted the Republic of Armenia Law Amending and Supplementing the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (Law number HO-18-N) on 9 February 2012. As a result of amending and supplementing Criminal Code of Armenia criminalises the “request for or promise to accept or acceptance of any offer of cash, property, property rights, securities, or any other advantage”. At 11 april 2011 in Strasbourg , The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) have published its Third Round Evaluation Report on Armenia in which it finds that further amendments to the Criminal Code are necessary to comply with Council of Europe standards. Regarding the criminalisation of corruption, GRECO welcomed the 2008 amendments to the Criminal Code, but found that in order to fully comply with the standards of the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption the legal provisions had needed to be further amended to ensure that the mere request for a bribe can be prosecuted, that all persons who work in the private sector are covered and that Armenia can prosecute all corruption offences committed by its citizens abroad. Please cite the applicable policy(s), law(s) or other measure(s). Please cite the text(s) As with active bribery, passive bribery of national public officials is criminalised by two separate 04.12.2012 Armenia Corruption Page 4 of 144 As with active bribery, passive bribery of national public officials is criminalised by two separate articles: (1) Article 311 CC deals with passive bribery of officials and (2) Article 311.1 CC dealswith passive bribery of employees in the public service who do not have the status of officials (socalled “public servants”).