The draft amendments establish that the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption will exercise supervision of the financial activities of political parties in line with new Article 30 para 1 (1) of the Law. This function is currently taken on by the Oversight and Audit Service of the Central Election Commission.⁵² The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR have previously emphasised the advantage of independent institutional oversight over campaign financing and recommended to clarify in the Electoral Code the institutional status of the Oversight and Audit Service.⁵³ As stated above, it is paramount that the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption is vested with sufficient financial and qualified human resources to fulfil its mandate in an appropriate manner The proposed amendments do not provide sufficient ground for this.

⁵² See Council of Europe Evaluation Report on Armenia on Transparency of Party Funding (Theme II) Greco Eval III Rep (2010 4E) 3 December 2010,
https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=09000016806c2b33 pars 48-50, 70.

⁵³ First Joint Opinion on the Armenian draft electoral code (CDL-AD(2016)019), para. 77; Second Joint Opinion on the Electoral Code CDL-AD(2016)031), para. 56; see also para 46 of the 2016 Joint Opinion.