"Open Data" in Official Declaration: (AM0030)

Issue subject to regulation: Since 2012, the declarations on property, income and affiliated persons of high-ranking officials have been published in PDF format in accordance with the requirements of Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No 1835-N of 15 December 2011. In 2015, the Commission set up a system of reports in the electronic system of declarations which enables to receive information on persons having failed to submit declarations within the specified time limit, as well as persons having submitted declarations late. It is not connected to the website of the Commission at http://www.ethics.am yet, and users have no access to it. As a result, the operating system enables users to retrieve data, though in an incomplete form (the operating system does not enable to retrieve the lists), on declarants having failed to submit declarations within the time limits specified by the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On public service", or declarants having submitted declarations late. Moreover, in the "Registry of Declarations" section of the website of the Commission at http://www.ethics.am, the search for declarations is carried out based on the following search characteristics of the official — "Name, Surname", "Position" and "Year". There are problems with not only ensuring the availability and accessibility of data on declarations, but also with further processing of such data. In terms of selecting declaration data required by specific characteristics, as well as receiving and analyzing the stream of data (dynamics) in separate years, the "Registry of Declarations" section is not available to users yet, particularly to investigative journalists and persons examining declaration data.; Main objective: The objective of the civil initiative is to make the data on declarants having failed to submit declarations within the time limits specified by law available and accessible for the civil society, as well as to enable to receive the data subject to publication from the system interactively and in an open electronic format.; Brief description of commitment: Compliance of the format of declarations of high-ranking officials with the “public data” principle, improvement of the processing, analysis and search system thereof.; OGP challenge addressed by the commitment: Enhancement of public integrity; Relevance to OGP values: Publication of declarations of high-ranking officials based on the “public data” principle will contribute to the availability and accessibility of information, as well as will ensure a higher level of public accountability; Ambition: It is expected to have, with the help of civil society, an impact on declarants to perform their duty of submitting declarations. This will improve the statistics on declarations that have not been submitted within the time limit specified by law and those submitted late. Moreover, by introducing the declarations registry interactive instrument, the Commission expects to receive from the interested groups of civil society more substantiated recommendations and applications in relation to cases of restrictions on the activities defined by the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On public service" or conflict of interests, or prima facie violations of rules of ethics on the part of any high-ranking official, or risks recorded in this regard.

4. Officials’ declarations in open data

Commitment text:

Title: 'Open data' in official declarations: Improving the electronic system of declarations on property, income and affiliated persons of high-ranking officials

Compliance of the format of declarations of high-ranking officials with the 'open data' principle, improvement of the processing, analysis and search system thereof.

The objective of this initiative is to make data on declarants having failed to submit declarations within the time limits specified by law should be made available and accessible for the civil society, as well as to enable to receive the data subject to publication from the system through an interactive method and in an open electronic format.

It is expected to have, with the help of civil society, an impact on declarants to perform their duty of submitting declarations. This will improve the statistics on declarations that have not been submitted within the time limit specified by law and those submitted late. Moreover, by introducing the declarations registry interactive instrument, the Commission expects to receive from the interested groups of civil society more substantiated recommendations and applications in relation to cases of restrictions on the activities defined by the Law of the Republic of Armenia 'On public service', or conflict of interests, or prima facie violations of the rules of ethics on the part of any high-ranking official, or risks recorded in that regard.

The activities under this commitment are as follows:

1. Presenting the proposal regarding the commitment to the interested civic groups, receiving their viewpoints, organizing discussions, summarizing results with regard to publication of lists of persons having failed to submit declarations within the time limit specified by law and developing software for making the Registry of Declarations section of the Commission’s website interactive for users (Sep 16 - Dec 16).

2. Posting on the Commission’s website the lists of persons having failed to submit declarations and persons having submitted declarations late in 2016 (Dec 16 - Mar 17).

3. Upgrading the search engine of the Registry of Declarations section of the Commission’s website at http://www.ethics.am, ensuring its interactive accessibility for users, developing and installing the software (Mar 17 - Jun 18).

Two milestones have been identified by the IRM researcher for this commitment, differentiated by the outputs of the commitment: posting the list of officials’ that did not submit declarations on time, and the establishment of search engine with information in open data format.

Responsible institution: Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials (upon consent)

Supporting institution(s): Staff of the Government of the Republic of Armenia

Start date: September 2016 End date: June 2018

Context and Objectives

Since 2012, declarations on property and income of high-ranking officials as well as their affiliated persons have been published in PDF format in accordance with the requirements of the Decision of the RA Government No 1835-N of 15 December 2011. The declarations are publicly available on the website of the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials (‘the Commission’) at http://www.ethics.am. However, apart from an official’s name, title, and year, it is not possible to search and filter declarations by specific types of information. For example, to find data of officials with income above a certain threshold, each official’s declaration has to be searched separately. Besides, publication format in the Registry of Declarations does not allow to process and analyze the data dynamics by year.

In 2015, the Commission set up an electronic system of declarations, which enables receiving information on persons who have failed to submit declarations, as well as persons who have submitted declarations late. However, this system is not connected to the website of the Commission at http://www.ethics.am and the information is not publicly available^{[Note120: OGP Third National Action Plan of the Republic of Armenia (2016-2018), http://ogp.am/u_files/file/3AP_ENG.docx ]}.

The objectives of the commitment are publication of declarations of high-ranking officials in 'open data' format, i.e. providing downloadable and searchable data instead of PDFs, and publication of the list of declarants who did not submit declarations within the time limits specified by law. The commitment also entails consulting with civil society on the process of publication of the list of non-compliant officials and the software to be developed for the website. The completion of the commitment would enable investigative journalists and civil society to have improved access to declarations and verify officials’ declared income and assets through fact-checking and reporting. Publication of the list of non-compliant officials could help to hold these officials accountable. Thus, the commitment addresses OGP values of access to information, civic participation and public accountability.

The commitment lists specific activities for achieving set targets. The Commission envisions discussion with interested civic groups, however, the scope of consultations and format of discussions are not clearly specified. The upgrade of the search engine of the Registry of Declarations sections of the http://www.ethics.am website aims to ensure interactive accessibility for users without specifying the search criteria that would be available. Thus, overall, this commitment is assessed as having ‘medium’ specificity.

This commitment has the potential to improve public access to information on public officials’ asset and income declarations. Publication of the list of those who have failed to submit declarations on time can potentially help to hold those officials accountable. If fully implemented, these efforts can improve civic oversight on declaration submission and any subsequent actions taken by the Commission, as well as provide an opportunity for the Commission to utilize the analyzed data for its own investigations. However, the impact of the commitment could remain limited in scope as long as it depends on the activities of a limited number of CSOs and media working in this area and on the follow-up actions taken by the responsible agency.

Completion

There has been limited progress on the commitment implementation. The Commission held discussions during various meetings with civil society and media representatives. For example, several working meetings were held with the participation of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center NGO in 2016. The Commission took into account the opinions and recommendations presented by 'Investigative Journalists' NGO through their publications in 'Hetq' online media and during non-formal interactions with Commission representatives.^{[Note121: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 24 October 2017 ],[Note122: Grisha Balasanyan (Hetq.am run by Investigative Journalists NGO), interview by IRM researcher, 23 October 2017]} On 12 October 2016, in the framework of the 'Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion' program funded by the EU an event 'Problems of Increasing Transparency in the Declaration System of High-Ranking Officials’ Income, Assets and Their Related Persons, as well as the Reforms Implemented' was organized in Vanadzor by the Armenian Lawyers' Association in partnership with the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials and the FOICA. Presentations by Commission representatives and experts were followed by the discussion of participant CSOs and media.^{[Note123: 'CSOs and Mass Media Must Play an Important Role in terms of Ensuring Transparency of the Income and Asset Declaration Institution', Iravaban.net, http://iravaban.net/en/141518.html; 'An anti-corruption event was held on problems of Increasing transparency in the declaration system and implemented reforms', Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials, http://www.ethics.am/hy/events/item/2016/10/13/news5/ ]}

The list of officials that failed to present declarations on time was scheduled to be completed by March 2017 but has not been published within the first year of action plan implementation. In fact, this list was published on 30 October 2017, presenting only the names and positions of officials who had not provided declarations on income and property for 2016 by that date. Any information on delayed submissions of declarations was not reflected in the published list. According to the Commission representatives, extra time was allocated to officials to review their declarations and complete missing information. Technical problems and legislative amendments, with subsequent reforms within the Commission, also contributed to the delay.^{[Note124: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 24 October 2017]}

In parallel to commitment implementation, several legislative amendments were adopted in the area of public declarations. Amendment to the law 'On Public Service' and a number of other laws was adopted by the parliament on 9 June 2017, and entered into force on 1 July 2017. According to the amendments, administrative liability is established for failure to submit declarations on time or for violating regulations for declarations, as well as for failure to submit full or correct information by negligence, and criminal liability is set for intentional non-submission of declarations, presenting false information, or hiding the information subject to declaration.^{[Note125: RA Law 'On making amendments and supplements to the RA law ‘On Public Service’', 09․06․2017, http://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?DocID=114359 ]} This amendment can have a multiplication effect on the potential impact of the commitment, as improved access to information on declarations can have practical implications on enforcing the sanctions toward non-compliant officials.

The funds envisaged for commitment implementation have been included in the scope of the 'Third Public Sector Modernization Project for Armenia' (2016-2020) funded by the World Bank. However, as noted by the Commission representative, the modernization of the search engine was conditioned by the legal amendments, which entered into force in July 2017, thus it was delayed. At the time of writing, the Commission has prepared the draft terms of reference for the development of software to upgrade the search engine of the 'Registry of Declarations' section of the Commission’s website.^{[Note126: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 24 October 2017]}

Next Steps

The commitment should be implemented in the remaining period of the action plan. After the approval of the draft ToR on modernization of the electronic system of declarations, the Commission plans to launch the procurement process to select a company for developing software.

When the search engine is ready, it is recommended to discuss it with interested civil society stakeholders to ensure its compliance with the commitment objectives and receive additional comments and recommendations on the provided search criteria and ease of use.

The representative of the Commission notes that for better impact of the commitment, CSOs and media have to be more active and carry out investigations to ensure civic oversight and help reveal the facts of illicit enrichment.^{[Note127: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 24 October 2017]} As noted by civil society representatives, apart from the improved platform of declaration data, what is more important is that the Commission takes further steps to verify data provided in declarations and ensures application of relevant sanctions as provided by law.^{[Note128: Focus group discussion in Yerevan, 26.10.17, Grisha Balasanyan (Hetq.am run by Investigative Journalists NGO), interview by IRM researcher, 23 October 2017, Varuzhan Hoktanyan (Transparency International Anticorruption Center NGO), interview by IRM researcher, 30 October 2017]} Publication of related decisions of the Commission and information on sanctions applied would contribute to increased public trust in this institution and better use of the platform by civil society organizations engaged in data analysis and civic oversight.

4. Officials’ declarations in open data

Commitment text:

Title: 'Open data' in official declarations: Improving the electronic system of declarations on property, income and affiliated persons of high-ranking officials

Compliance of the format of declarations of high-ranking officials with the “open data” principle, improvement of the processing, analysis and search system thereof.

The objective of this initiative is to make data on declarants having failed to submit declarations within the time limits specified by law should be made available and accessible for the civil society, as well as to enable to receive the data subject to publication from the system through an interactive method and in an open electronic format.

It is expected to have, with the help of civil society, an impact on declarants to perform their duty of submitting declarations. This will improve the statistics on declarations that have not been submitted within the time limit specified by law and those submitted late. Moreover, by introducing the declarations registry interactive instrument, the Commission expects to receive from the interested groups of civil society more substantiated recommendations and applications in relation to cases of restrictions on the activities defined by the Law of the Republic of Armenia 'On public service', or conflict of interests, or prima facie violations of the rules of ethics on the part of any high-ranking official, or risks recorded in that regard.

The activities under this commitment are as follows:

1.Presenting the proposal regarding the commitment to the interested civic groups, receiving their viewpoints, organizing discussions, summarizing results with regard to publication of lists of persons having failed to submit declarations within the time limit specified by law and developing software for making the Registry of Declarations section of the Commission’s website interactive for users (Sep 16 - Dec 16).

2.Posting on the Commission’s website the lists of persons having failed to submit declarations and persons having submitted declarations late in 2016 (Dec 16 - Mar 17).

3.Upgrading the search engine of the Registry of Declarations section of the Commission’s website at http://www.ethics.am, ensuring its interactive accessibility for users, developing and installing the software (Mar 17 - Jun 18).

Editorial note: While the action plan lists three milestones, the IRM researcher identified two milestones for this commitment, differentiated by the outputs of the commitment: posting the list of officials’ that did not submit declarations on time, and the establishment of search engine with information in open data format.

Responsible institution: Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials (upon consent)

Supporting institution: Staff of the Government of the Republic of Armenia

Start date: September 2016. End date: June 2018

Commitment Aim

According to the Republic of Armenia (RA) law “On public service,” high-ranking officials have to present a declaration on their property and income on an annual basis by March 30 of the next year as well as upon their appointment and termination of the office within 30 days of the appointment or termination. [Note28: RA Law ‘On Public Service’, 26.05.2011, Article 33, http://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?DocID=121573 ] Since 2012, declarations on property and income of high-ranking officials and their affiliated persons have been published in PDF format on the website of the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials (“the Commission”) at http://www.ethics.am. However, search options were available only by official’s name, title, and year, and it was not possible to search and filter declarations by specific types of information (such as income or property owned). Also, the publication format in the Registry of Declarations did not allow to process and analyze the data by year.

This commitment aimed to publish the declarations of high-ranking officials in open data format (i.e. downloadable and searchable data instead of PDFs), and publish the list of declarants who did not submit declarations within the time limits specified by law. The commitment also entailed consulting civil society on the process of publication of the list of non-compliant officials and the software to be developed for the website. The completion of the commitment would enable journalists and civil society to access and verify officials’ declared income and assets through fact-checking and reporting.

Status

Midterm: Limited

This commitment saw limited progress in the first year of the commitment implementation. The Commission held discussions on the commitment during various meetings, events, and non-formal interactions with civil society and media representatives, including CSOs working in anticorruption and transparency as well as investigative journalists.

The funds envisaged for this commitment’s implementation are included in the scope of the World Bank’s 'Third Public Sector Modernization Project for Armenia' (2016-2020). According to the Commission representative responsible for the commitment, the modernization of the search engine was delayed due to legal amendments that entered into force in July 2017. By October 2017, the Commission had prepared the draft Terms of Reference for the development of software to upgrade the search engine of the 'Registry of Declarations' section of the Commission’s website. [Note29: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 24 October 2017]

The list of officials who failed to present declarations on time was scheduled to be completed by March 2017 but was not published within the first year of the implementation. This list was published on 30 October 2017, presenting the names and positions of officials who had not provided declarations on income and property for 2016 due by 30 March 2017 by the date of publication (30 October 2017). [Note30: The Commission publishes the list of the officials who have not submitted their appointment or annual declarations of 2016, appointment and termination declarations in 2017, 30.10.2017, http://ethics.am/hy/news/item/2017/10/30/news63/ ] Any information on delayed submissions of declarations was not reflected in the published list. For more information, see the Armenia IRM Progress Report 2016-2017. [Note31: IRM Armenia Progress Report 2016-2018 (Year 1), 04 'Open Data' in Official Declaration, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/04-open-data-official-declaration ]

End of term: Limited

In May 2018, the Commission published the lists of officials who failed to provide their annual declarations and those who provided their annual declarations with delay. [Note32: The list of the high-ranking officials who have not submitted annual declarations for 2017 is published, 24.05.2018, http://ethics.am/hy/news/item/2018/05/24/news107/; The list of the high-ranking officials, who submitted their declarations later than the time period prescribed by the law within the period of July 1 of 2017 to February 10 of 2018, 18.05.2018, http://ethics.am/hy/news/item/2018/05/18/news106/ ] Later, the Commission published the list of officials who did not provide declarations of income and property upon their appointment. [Note33: The list of declarant public officials who failed to submit their appointment declarations as of July 24 of 2018, 25.07.2018, http://ethics.am/en/news/item/2018/07/25/news115/ ] Thus, one milestone for the commitment has been implemented. The Commission also published information on the number of administrative cases proceeded and penalties applied towards the non-compliant officials. [Note34: The Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials has made 100 decisions on the application of administrative penalties, 31.05.2018, http://ethics.am/en/news/item/2018/05/31/news108/ ]

The second milestone—establishment of the search engine and providing open data format of declarations on Commission’s website—was not completed. According to the Staff of the Government, the implementation of this milestone was delayed due to delays in funding, which was planned in the framework of the “Third Public Sector Modernization Project for Armenia' (2016-2020) and funded by the World Bank. [Note35: Lilia Afrikyan (Staff of the Government), interview by IRM researcher, 19 September 2018] Furthermore, the Commission proposed to postpone these activities because of the expected dissolution of the current Commission and establishment of a new Commission on Preventing Corruption. [Note36: Armen Khudaverdyan (Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials), interview by IRM researcher, 03 September 2018 ] The law “On the Commission on Preventing Corruption,” adopted in June 2017, stipulates the establishment of a Commission on Preventing Corruption with a larger scope of functions and powers. This will replace the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials upon its formation after April 2018 when Constitutional changes fully come into effect. [Note37: RA Law “On the Commission on Preventing Corruption”, 09.06.2017, http://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?DocID=114355 ] However, by the end of the action plan period, a new Commission has yet to be formed. Correspondingly, the Commission suggested carrying this commitment to the next action plan.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

Public Accountability: Did Not Change

In parallel to this commitment’s implementation, several legislative amendments were adopted in the area of public declarations in 2017. Parliament adopted an amendment to the RA law “On Public Service” (and a number of other laws) on 9 June 2017, and they entered into force on 1 July 2017. According to the amendments, administrative liability is established for failure to submit declarations on time or for violating regulations for declarations as well as for failure to submit full or correct information by negligence. Criminal liability is set for the intentional non-submission of declarations, presenting false information, or hiding the information subject to declaration. The legislative amendments allowed the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials to have additional staff and enlarge their authorities, including verification of declaration information and proceeding administrative cases toward non-compliant officials. [Note38: RA Law “On making amendments and supplements to the RA law ‘On Public Service’”, 09.06.2017, http://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?DocID=114359 ] These changes have taken place outside of the commitment scope, but had an important role in improving public accountability of officials. Publishing the list of those who have not submitted declarations on time might have marginal impact on access to information on non-compliant officials, as it provides consolidated information that would otherwise be found through detailed revision of all declarations available in the Commission’s website and identifying the missing officials.

Though the commitment included discussions with interested stakeholders on the commitment as the first step in the creation of “open data” platform, it has not added new opportunities or capabilities for the public to inform or influence government decisions, since the search engine was not created, thus civic participation has not changed.

Carried Forward?

At the time of writing this report (September 2018), Armenia’s fourth action plan is not available. The Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials has suggested carrying forward the establishment of the searchable database of declarations in the next action plan.

For Commitment detail, see Armenia End-Term Report 2016-2018.