Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

How developed is the civil service institute in Armenia?

M.B. - One may say that the system is now in a developing stage, which suggests new reforms. The recent legal changes were aimed at that. However, we can consider the civil service system completely developed when both the public and the civil servants themselves fully feel its outcomes, and when the civil service quality essentially changes. Much has been done, but in that regard we still need to develop.

It is already several years that knowing the ARM “Law on Freedom of Information” is a must for civil servants. What do you think, how does this knowledge help civil servants in their work?

 M.B. -The realization of the requirements related to the ARM “Law on Freedom of Information” is generally an issue of state governance and local self-government bodies. This function is directly assigned to one or a couple of structural subdivisions. As you know, we have done enormous work in this regard, with the participation of “Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.” According to the relevant Government resolution, the structures and functions of public affairs units were combined, which has made the process of providing information more structured. The passports of the positions of civil servants of those units were also amended. And in 2010 the situation in regional administrations was also observed, and with the efforts of ARM President’s administration and ARM Ministry of Territorial Administration such collectiveness was ensured in the relevant units of the staffs of regional administrations, too. Moreover, the competitive and attesting questionnaires were also improved, and questions about ARM “Law on Freedom of Information” were included there. In this part it seems that necessary mechanisms are created.
But in general, the adoption and implementation of this law was more important from the point of changing the overall thinking of state employees and putting the governance system essentially on new ideological bases. The effectiveness of the state and state governance should be linked to principles of providing accountability, transparency and public control. After all, this is the philosophy of this law. And the more government employees access this philosophy, the easier it will be to overcome the present issues.

According to the FOI Law, in state structures there must be a person responsible for freedom of information, and this responsibility must be mentioned in the passport of his/her position. Is this requirement of the FOI Law met?

M.B. - I think the institute of a FOI responsible person is not yet fully introduced here. The reason might be that in this time period no problems related specifically to it have occurred. Providing information is the obligation of the staffs of state bodies. And the responsible person for the work of the staff is the head of staff, who organizes, programs, coordinates, administrates and controls the current activities of the staff. He is also responsible for not accomplishing or inappropriately
accomplishing requirements of laws and legal acts, as well as the tasks of the staff.

Since 22 November, 2010 the FOI Non-Formal Educational Center has been active, where civil servants are trained in this sphere. How would you assess the effectiveness of these trainings?

M.B.- It is good to know that an FOI non-formal educational center is created to improve civil servants’ skills in the spheres of serving citizens, service provision and implementing the access to information right. It is much more cheering that hundreds of civil servants are to be trained with the Center’s programs. Indeed, the final outcome of the trainings ought to be manifested in their work. The fewer problems occur with citizens, the higher quality the provided services have, the higher the effectiveness of these trainings is. The interactivity of the trainings, the subject matter, as well as the positive reactions of the participants prove that a correct and targeted approach is employ, and accordingly, the effectiveness of the trainings is high. I hope it will be continual.