The first step for launching any business is to create a juridical person, and to do it one needs to be equipped with the appropriate information. And naturally those inquiries lead to the State Registry. However, here one encounters an informational dead-end. No needed information is publicly available in the State Registry – there are no bulletin-boards on the walls.

Whereas, according to the 2nd point of the article 11 of the RA law about the “State Registry of Juridical Persons” the body that realizes the registration is expected to give appropriate forms of the needed documents for the registration (e.g. the regulations, the decision to announce somebody a juridical person). However, in the State Registry Agency for Juridical Persons we were told that these appropriate forms are defined by the RA Ministry of Justice. However, it was useless to visit the ministry since the appropriate forms are not yet defined (if they were defined the state registry would have already acquired them). In the department of registering NGOs we were told that the best thing to do for creating a juridical person is to use the appropriate RA Legislation (e.g. the RA laws about the State Registry of Juridical Persons, about NGOs, about Limited Liabilities Companies) and to form and show documents according to those legal acts. In short, the best and the most effective way to get some needed information about the State Registry of juridical persons is to study the corresponding legislation and to rely on the advice of those working in the RA JP State Registry Agency.

Things are the same in the district subdivisions. For example, in the State Registry’s Centre district subdivision one can find only information about registering as a taxpayer, and nothing more.
When we asked one of the employees of the State Registry’s Centre district subdivision about getting information on registering an organization she first inquired what organization we were talking about. Then she directed us to someone we could turn to. And to the question where or how we could get information about the documents necessary for the registration and the registration regulations, she answered that we should study the law or we could just ask them: they were ready to give information. That day they were really willing to give the necessary information, but what are the chances that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow that same employee will be so willing to answer questions about the State Registry. Isn’t it possible for that employee to be tired, or in a bad mood, or feel nervous?

In the Internet, too, the necessary information about the State Registry is missing; the website of the State Registry is not working, and the corresponding section of the website of the RA Ministry of Justice is empty – here one can only find the photo and the biography of the head of the RA Ministry of Justice Agency for State Registry of Juridical Persons. Formerly there was the www.stateregistry.am website, which gave enough information about the State Registry. Today this website does not work.
Head of the RA Ministry of Justice Agency for State Registry of Juridical Persons Armen Gevorgyan explained that the website of the State Registry does not work for the following reason: “Today the website does not work for technical reasons – the server that bore the website was broken and some time is needed to repair it. Now all possible work is being done to restore the website.” Some months have passed since this answer but the website of the State Registry is still broken. And to the question “Why?” the answer is that they are working on it.

According to the head of the State Registry Agency “their official website – www.stateregistry.am – has had several shortcomings. Particularly, the connection between the central body and the district subdivisions of the State Registry was realized via modems and telephone lines. The huge volume of the transferred information was not taken into consideration. Also, the only modem in the central body could not serve the 8 subdivisions in Yerevan and 10 in the regions. Today the use of the modem connection is considered too ineffective – low speed, expensive international calls.”
In the State Registry Agency for Juridical Persons a new information system built with modern technology is planned to be created in 2010. This is to contribute to the increase of the effectiveness of the work that is being done and to the creation of an informational environment.

And how to get information on the activities of the State Registry when there is no information pasted on the walls of the district subdivisions, the website does not work, and the corresponding section of the ministry website is empty. In the RA Ministry of Justice they said to us, “Because the State Registry has its own website they put no information in the official website of the RA Ministry of Justice. There is only a link to the website of the State Registry in that section.” Today the website does not work, and to the question how to get information about the State Registry the ministry employee answered, “Soon the website will again be available for the readers.” They also promised to put some information about the State Registry in the official website of the Ministry of Justice, as well. But this promise wasn’t kept, either.

Head of the State Registry Agency A. Gevorgyan, in his turn, suggests the following solution to the problem: “Before the www.stateregistry.am website is restored people should visit to a district subdivision of the State Registry or use the RA law about ‘The State Registry of Juridical Persons’ where the list of the documents necessary for the registration of the juridical persons is clearly defined.”

However, in the district subdivisions of the State Registry, as was already mentioned, only oral information is given which makes citizens dependant on the mood and subjective attitude of the employees. We were just lucky in our trip to the Centre district subdivision of the State registry – the employee was willing and had spare time. However, should she had been busy we would have to get in line and unnecessarily waste time to get some information.

Whereas, in reality the publicity of information is not too time consuming – at least the appropriate information can be printed and pasted on the walls of the subdivisions of the State Registry. This information can also be disseminated online. Because information publicity is also a demand of the law defined in the RA laws about “The State Registry of Juridical Persons” and “Freedom of Information”.