The Draft Law on Approving “The RA Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2019-2022” provides for the clarification of the legal status of public organizations and the introduction of a corruption risk reduction toolkit, including the identification of existing corruption risks and the introduction of mechanisms to overcome them and the promotion of the adoption of anti-corruption compliance requirements in the business sector. 

"Foresee the introduction of the “Institute of Private Detectives in Business” as the expected output of the measure: considering that the latter is interconnected with anti-corruption compliance programs in so far as one of their components is “Due Diligence” - conducting risk-based due diligence study of third parties, including business partners, which is carried out by background checks, often involving private detectives for this purpose.,” noted  Lusine Nalbandyan, expert of the “Armenia: Promoting Anti-Corruption Conduct and Reforms” project at  the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.

According to her, in the business sector, private detectives provide essential support to businesses in assessing the authority and financial standing of their debtors and other partners and in realizing their financial obligations.

“The above said prevents the conclusion of risky transactions and the evasion of debt by debtors. A private detective can determine if the assets are fictitious, whether the payments are inadequate or if there are other misstatements or frauds. In addition, private detective entities carry out extensive work in identifying facts of intellectual property rights violations, especially in the illicit use of trademarks, etc. Analysing the international experience on this issue, it becomes clear that the US, UK, England, France, Germany, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Russia and many other countries around the world the  institute of private detectives is recognized at the state level," Lusine Nalbandyan said.

The expert also notes that the an expected outcome of the action should be the definition of the Legislative Requirement for the Implementation of Anti-Corruption Compliance Programs for public sector organizations, non-public sector companies and organizations with more than fifty percent of state or community shares.

"The expected outcome of the action should be the introduction of the Anticorruption Compliance Program as a basis for excluding/mitigating the liability of legal entities. In addition, the Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Compliance Program as a basis for preferring participants in equal conditions of public procurement should be an expected outcome of the action as well,” Lusine Nalbandyan concluded.