Arpine Hovhannisyan's Call to David Ananyan

In October-November 2018, the State Revenue Committee (SRC) presented and is now revising a draft of changes that would require all NGOs to publish legally mandated reports, whereas under the current regulation, only NGOs funded by public resources have such obligations. Arpine Hovhannisyan wrote about this on her Facebook page.

“In 2016, as the then Minister of Justice, I had a clear goal when presenting the law: to provide more liberal regulations for the activities of NGOs. These regulations were not only liberal but represented a three-tier consensus, as the draft was created in close cooperation among the state, international organizations, and civil society. I consider the SRC's current policy a direct interference in the activities of NGOs, and I will inform our international partners about this. For this reason, the ‘Legal Education and Oversight’ NGO is also joining the application-position statement of 102 NGOs and foundations along with the Armenian Lawyers’ Association regarding the said regulations.

At the same time, I urge SRC President David Ananyan to engage in more constructive activities instead of interfering in the affairs of NGOs, for example:

• Advise your deputy not to call customs officials at night and issue orders to let desired cars through (yes, corruption has completely 'disappeared').
• Advise another deputy not to take banking secret information from the Financial Monitoring Center of the Central Bank under the guise of operational-investigative measures. You will certainly have to respond for it.
• Advise that same deputy not to summon entrepreneurs to his office and, with clean paper, request the amount of money to be paid.
• Reminder: Article 9 of the Law on Operational-Investigative Activities states: 'The monitoring of telephone conversations during the conduct of operational-investigative measures is ensured only by the operational-technical department acting within the system of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia.' Therefore, do not involve other law enforcement agencies and do not commission them; it is illegal.

For now, that’s all. The list is long. I will be consistent in ensuring that the false data and figures stated by you and the Prime Minister do not lead to fabricated cases against people,” Hovhannisyan wrote.