Three candidates pass contest for head of RA Anti-Corruption  Committee 

ArmInfo. "We cannot treat the candidacy of the Chairman of the Anti- Corruption Committee in the  same way as other officials," said Daniel Ioannisyan, coordinator of the public organization "Union of Informed Citizens", a member of the competition committee for the selection of candidates for the  Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, at a press conference on March 11, declaring his disagreements with other members of the committee on the issue of selecting candidates. 

Ioannisyan recalled that in November 2024, the Office of the Prime  Minister of Armenia announced a competition for the participation of  two representatives of civil society in the competition committee for  the selection of candidates for the Anti-Corruption Committee. Based  on the results of the first stage, the competition committee did not  support the candidacy of Rafael Yeritsyan, Head of the Main  Department of the National Security Service for Economic Security and  Anti-Corruption, who was the only one in the competition.

In the second stage, 5 candidates competed for the position of  Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee:  lawyer Karen Batikyan,  senior investigator of the Third Investigation Department of the  Anti-Corruption Committee Artashes Mailyan, head of the Department  for Coordination of the Work of Inspection Bodies Petros Martirosyan,  deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee Artur Nahapetyan and  senior prosecutor for cases of confiscation of property of illegal  origin of the Prosecutor General's Office Gevorg Kocharyan. Three  candidates passed the threshold of the competition: Artur Nahapetyan,  Petros Martirosyan and Gevorg Kocharyan. The government will decide  which of them to appoint as the head of the Committee, but  theoretically this may not happen. Then a new competition will have  to be held, Ioannisyan explained.

The selection committee selected candidates based on the following  criteria: personal qualities, integrity and professional knowledge.  All candidates have a higher legal education. At the same time, the  law does not require a candidate to have a legal education.

According to Ioannisyan, he had a number of disagreements with other  members of the selection committee. In particular, in connection with  the candidacy of Petros Martirosyan. According to the human rights  activist, the level of integrity of the latter does not meet the  required level.

Thus, in his <special opinion>, he pointed out a number of  <questionable>, in his assessment, aspects in connection with  Martirosyan's activities both as the head of the Department for  Coordination of the Work of Inspection Bodies and as the prosecutor  of the Lori region. Ioannisyan is also concerned about how he was  able to save 6 million drams on the prosecutor's salary and that he  keeps his savings in cash, which creates risks in terms of the fight  against corruption. He also does not like Martirosyan's close circle,  his friends, who made <politically incorrect> statements.

The position of the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, created at  the end of 2021, has been vacant since November 2024, when Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on the first chairman of the  committee, Sasun Khachatryan, to resign.