Yerevan, 1 November 2017 – Representatives of non-governmental and business organizations involved in the protection of business and their interests discussed the positive and risky aspects of the introduction of the institute of private intelligence during without-ties meeting with the Minister of Justice of Armenia, Mr. Davit Harutyunyan.
The meeting was organized in the scope of the “Evidence-based Advocacy for Reform” project, which is implemented by the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE), Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) and European Business Association (EBA) with financial support of the German International Cooperation (GIZ).
According to the presented study on the Private Investigators’ Institute conducted by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, mentioned institute can be considered as a means of overcoming corruption problems in the business sphere. Specifically, in a number of countries, intelligence agents provide substantial support to economic entities to study the reputation and financial status of their debtors and other partners in determining their ability to actually fulfill their financial commitments. As a result they are prevented from signing risk deals and avoid situations of avoidance to pay debts by debtors. Minister of Justice David Harutyunyan presented his observations and the risk aspects of this institute, considering the experience of this already-developed institute in a number of countries.
During the effective discussion other issues related to the legal sphere were also discussed. Notably, bizprotect.am website has been launched within the framework of the project, which provides an opportunity to report the problems that hinder the development of business, after which the specialists study the application and respond quickly to it. It is possible also to inform about a problem anonymously. The website creators, taking into consideration the international standards and experience, also have taken care that no one (including law enforcement agencies) could identify the reporting person. By the way, there are already success stories. The mobile application bizprotect.am or bizpashtpan.am has been created as well, which helps to report on a problem faster. The application allows not only sending of text information, but also the photos and documents.