Freedom of Information Center organized a public discussion dedicated to the third chapter of the draft new National Anticorruption Strategy  of the Republic of Armenia   held on the 12th of November in Yerevan, where 22 civil society representatives took part. The event was implemented with assistance of “Cassals and Associates” Inc. and funded by USAID.     Armen Khudaverdyan, Team Leader of Expert Group for Anticorruption Strategy Monitoring comprehensively presented the main provisions of this chapter, particularly stressing upon criminality of corruption, conflict of interests and introduction of ethics institution and civil society active involvement into anticorruption processes.   Discussions followed the report of A. Khudaverdyan.   As a result of discussions the participants addressed the following suggestions:  
•    clarifying ‘public service’ concept. ‘Public service’ should be interpreted only from the standpoint of the legislation;  
•    conducting joint public discussions with participation of civil society and executive power representatives.  It is believed that by doing so the efficiency of public discussions will increase;
•    summarizing the law enforcement practice;
•    independence of civil society institute both from the government and grantor;
•     introducing  an institution of moral damage compensation;
•    introducing other people’s rights  protection institution by NGOs;
•    practicable increase in salaries of staff in judicial system.   The next public discussion will take place in Yerevan in December, during which it is planned to discuss the fourth chapter of the draft strategy.