Chairman of the RA Anti-Corruption Committee Sasun Khachatryan received U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, H.E. Lynne Tracy Senior, the newly appointed Director of the U.S. Embassy Yerevan's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Alexis Haftvani, Criminal Justice Reforms Project Manager Kristina Afoyan and Senior Anti-corruption Advisor Johannes Van Den Hoogen.
Congratulating Sasun Khachatryan on assuming the post of Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, U.S. Ambassador Lynn Tracey noted that the fight against corruption is an area in which the cooperation between Armenia and the United States is close and continuous, and now U.S. is ready to work with the newly established organization to deepen that cooperation. At the same time, the Ambassador attached importance to ensuring independence and transparency of the Committee’s activities.
Touching upon the forthcoming activities of the Anti-Corruption Committee and the challenges facing the agency, Sasun Khachatryan singled out four main components, the joint existence of which will make it possible to achieve tangible results in the fight against corruption. According to Sasun Khachatryan, the mentioned components are will, diligence, professional knowledge and material and technical base. The Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee stressed the need to make greater efforts, especially in the provision of the last two components, which will be greatly facilitated by the study of American best practices. S. Khachatryan underlined the importance of introducing American best practices on mutual legal assistance in the subject field activities.
As for the improvement of the professional knowledge of investigators, according to the American side, various training programs aimed at capacity building are already being outlined in that direction. In this context, referring to the investigation of corruption crimes, in particular cases of money laundering and illicit enrichment, Sasun Khachatryan stressed the need to present case study in the framework of training courses on the latter two.
At the end of the meeting both sides highlighted the importance of expanding cooperation and increasing efficiency in the fight against corruption through joint efforts.
