Armenia's path to beneficial ownership transparency and data use

By Nyasha V.

Workshop gathers civil society groups and journalists to strengthen public oversight of extractive companies

In recent years, Armenia has been committed to being open about the individuals who own companies operating in the country. In 2020,?Armenia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative?(EITI) began publishing beneficial ownership data for extractive companies, and the government established an?online register?the following year. Having refined its definition of beneficial ownership, the Armenian government is set to publish beneficial ownership data across all economic sectors, and to improve the quality and accessibility of data by publishing it in a standard, open, and machine-readable format, albeit only on an individual per-record basis, rather than as a bulk dataset. Despite recent political unrest, the government, civil society, and industry have been keen to make progress on ownership transparency.

Building on this momentum, the?Opening Extractives?programme facilitated a two-day workshop in the outskirts of Yerevan on using beneficial ownership data for investigative reporting and advocacy. In collaboration with the?Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA), civil society groups and journalists shared skills, tools, and methodologies to analyse and use beneficial ownership disclosures and improve public oversight of natural resource governance in Armenia.

The first day of the workshop kicked off with a presentation from the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, where they introduced Armenia’s state of play regarding beneficial ownership regulations, systems, and obligations. The session was followed by questions and answers from participants and training on company declaration forms, presented by respected journalists and trainers Mkrtich Karapetyan and Ani Grigoryan, from CivilNet.

Louise Russell-Prywata, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Open Ownership, provided an overview of the state of play of beneficial ownership transparency globally, and presented case studies on uses of beneficial ownership in European countries. She stressed the importance of globally linkable beneficial ownership data, as this cross-border problem needs to be tackled transnationally.

Finally, Kristine Aghalaryan of?Hetq, a network of investigative journalists, delivered a masterclass on how to conduct investigative research, where participants learned to link and verify different data sources available in Armenia, build relationships with informants, and report engaging stories.

Some of the challenges journalists mentioned during the workshop were that beneficial ownership information was not downloadable in bulk which causes obstacles for analysis and verification of data. Another challenge flagged was payment of fees to access the various websites which made their work difficult and costly. Representatives from the State Registry, which maintains the Armenia beneficial ownership register, engaged positively with these issues, and civil society and journalists signalled their willingness to work with government on follow up actions on analysing beneficial ownership data. The Ministry of Justice representatives committed to evaluating alternatives to improve the ease with which journalists can access the data.

On the second day, representatives from?CivilNet, an online television and media source with a focus on human rights and democracy in Armenia, discussed available data sources and how the data can be used. Participants drew on existing databases – such as Armenia’s?elections registry?and the national?procurement system, as well as information from public?financial disclosures and assets declarations,?contracts?and?sanctioned companies?– and pitched ideas on using beneficial ownership data for research and advocacy projects. Ideas discussed among participants include investigating the true owners of Armenian media centres and TV stations, looking into health reforms and procurement processes, assessing conflicts of interest in the land and hydroelectric sell process, and addressing irregularities in the mining sector through beneficial ownership transparency.

Finally, Lusine Torosyan, National Coordinator of Armenia EITI, showcased Armenia?EITI’s disclosures?of beneficial ownership and other EITI-related data, while Louise Russell-Prywata introduced the?Open Ownership Register. The Opening Extractives programme will continue to support Armenia in its efforts towards beneficial ownership transparency and data use, and will look to Armenia to pioneer good practices in the coming years.

As next steps, the programme will follow up on the work of investigative journalists and civil society representatives on the five selected mentorship beneficial ownership data use projects which will be supported by Opening Extractives programme in partnership with Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

Read the scoping assessment of the beneficial ownership regime in Armenia, including analysis of current and planned reforms using the Open Ownership Principles:

More on the work to improve beneficial ownership data quality in Armenia as part of the Opening Extractives programme: