EcoLur
By 1 January 2020, the names of the real owners of companies operating metallic mines or carrying out geological prospecting for the purpose of further mining in Armenia shall be published: this is a requirement of the EITI standards (the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), as the member of Civil Society of the EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group, YSU Associate Professor Harutyun Movsisyan said in his interview with EcoLur.
“In 2019, an ad hoc register shall be established so that the companies present their real owners in the forms of documents with relevant proof and signatures of competent people,’ Harutyun Movsisyan said.
Reminder: on 21 February 2019, the Government of Armenia approved the draft decision on the package of legislative amendments to the Government of Armenia within the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and submitted it to the National Assembly. The members of the Government stated at the Cabinet meeting that all the owners up to the last person shall be detected. Responding to these statements, ex-representative of Civil Society in the EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group Arthur Grigoryan has posted, “This process has been developed within the frames of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and starting from 30 November 2019 it obligates the companies to declare the data of only those beneficial owners, who own 10% of the shares or have equal participation in the company capital. That is, if before this date people manage to divide their shares with the proportion of 9.9%, they are not obliged to declare their owners (this limit is not set only for politically exposed persons). Moreover, there is no mechanism to check how a Cyprian Populous Papastapopulos or a Nazik have become the owners of these shares (lawfulness of obtaining these funds).
This material has been prepared within “Mining-Impacted Communities – Full Participants in EITI Process” project implemented by EcoLur with the USAID support within the frames of 'Engaged Citizenry for Responsible Governance' project implemented by Transparency International Anticorruption Center.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
February 25, 2019 at 18:00