RA draft Laws on Public Service, Civil Service, Regulatory Framework of Government Relations and a number of other related draft laws included in the same package derived from RA Constitutional Amendments were involved on the agenda and were approved during RA Government session, held on January 18, 2018.

There was no public access to the abovementioned draft laws until January 18, 2018, and only after being included on the Government session agenda was public access provided to them in violation of RA legislative requirements. In particular, according to article 27.1 of RA Law on Legal Acts public discussions shall be carried out through making the draft normative legal act public – at least on the website of the body developing the draft. In addition, article 28 part 1 of the same law defines the list of documents attached to the draft when submitting it to a law-making body for discussion, including summary reference on the comments and recommendations received concerning the draft, on accepting or rejecting them, accompanied with a justification of the reasons for rejection; moreover, the summary reference shall include those comments and recommendations received as a result of public discussions, which have been accepted.

The binding requirement by RA Law on Legal Acts to include the documents (including the results of public discussions) in the draft law package submitted for RA Government discussion is stipulated also by point 39 of the procedure endorsed by RA Presidential Decree NH-174-N of 18.07.2007.

The procedure of organizing and carrying out public discussions on the draft laws before submitting them to the Government was established by RA Government decision N296-N of 25.03.2010; according to points 7 and 8 of the established procedure the body developing the draft shall post the invitation and the draft with required materials on its website and on the unified website (https://www.e-draft.am/) for publishing draft legal acts, administered by RA Ministry of Justice. Moreover, the deadline for public discussion on the draft law cannot be less than 10 days from the date of issuing the invitation for public discussions.

Neither RA Law on Legal Acts, nor other mentioned legal acts provide for any exception to public discussion prior to submitting them to the Government for discussion. Furthermore, all those documents define the need and aim to provide public discussions, i.e. notifying about the developed draft legal act to physical and legal persons, gathering their opinions, revealing public opinion on the issues under discussion, receiving information on alternative opinions, possible expenses, benefits and risks and providing public participation in the law-making activities and, if needed, making amendments based on them.

Without being submitted for public discussion, irrespective of the quality and contents of the developed drafts, the law-making process pursued so hastily and in violation of legislative requirements is of particular concern. All the more, it is unacceptable to submit the legislative package on good governance and anticorruption policy to the Government in a non-transparent and non-participatory manner, irrespective of any justification and urgency. By this step there is limited possibility for the public’s effective participation in the early stage and impact on decision-making. Such approach shows RA Government’s non-serious attitude toward the law-making process and the need for public engagement in the fight against corruption.

We call on RA Government, and particularly, RA Prime Minister, Head of the Anticorruption Council Karen Karapetyan to revoke the draft law package from the National Assembly and to provide due public discussions, meeting the legislative requirements.

TIAC recommendations on the package of the bills will be published additionally after proper study of the documents.