On 4 April, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association organized a workshop on “Anti-Corruption Compliance” in Kapan which was dedicated to the internal capacity building of the participants. The workshop was held in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project which was co-funded by Center of International Private Enterprises.
Mr. Vache Baghdasaryan, head of ALA Kapan branch office made a welcoming speech, “We will assist you in the implementation of anti-corruption programs in your business on a free basis. This is a unique opportunity because as a result of legislative changes later, businesses will pay for this service,” he said.
Expert Ms Lusine Nalbandyan noted that she highly appreciated the voicing by participants of legislative gaps that greatly hinder their economic activity. “Our objective is firstly to inform representatives about the anti-corruption compliance program, which is part of the anti-corruption education, and then introduce that plan in your organisations by identifying specific risks to each of them. It is important that the internal rules, procedures, policies we will provide, would further be monitored and improved as needed. During the risk assessment game which was organised in the course of the training, the issue of legal regulation was more evident. The lack of regulation at the regulatory level makes risk manifestations of corruption in the field more obvious,” Lusine Nalbandyan said.
Participants mentioned that during the course, identifying the corruption risks and its assessment is very interesting because the organisation’s activities are directly linked to the society and corruption risks are not excluded.
In addition to theoretical lectures, the participants filled out pre-test and post-test for evaluation of their knowledge. They also played the “5 why’s” game, in particular why they need to introduce anti-Corruption Compliance Programs in their organizations.
The last group work was aimed at identifying corruption risks in their own organizations and presenting their prevention plan.
