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The document introduced to the Committee by the NGOs on the reform policy in the charity sector became the basis of the discussion, where the problems of the sector were pointed out and a number of proposals were presented: The deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Mariam Poghosyan said this during the working discussion on the necessity for reforms in the charity sector held on her initiative on November 13.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs Heriknaz Tigranyan, the deputies of the Civil Contract Faction Zaruhi Batoyan, Gayane Yeghiazaryan, the representatives of Kentron (Centre) civil society development NGO, the representatives of the charitable foundations, the employees of the Armenian Red Cross Society took part in the discussion.

According to the participants of the discussion, charity is a sphere that everyone needs. The importance of the formation and development of the culture of charity in Armenia, the necessity for state-charity organization, state-individual charity interaction, transparency in the implementation of charity was emphasized. Thanks to the state-NGO cooperation, it was proposed to reform the RA Law on Charity and bring it into line with the modern requirements. In particular, it is proposed to form a joint partnership platform for carrying out complex charity reforms. It was also proposed to simplify the procedure for examining applications submitted for the purpose of recognizing ‘Programmes as charitable’, to introduce a qualification system for a charitable organization, to review the threshold of 20/80% of the ratio of expenses/donations set by law, which creates inconveniences in practice and does not meet the current requirements of the functional activities of the charitable NGOs.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs Heriknaz Tigranyan considered it important that the NGOs are concerned about solving the problems in the field.

According to the MP Zaruhi Batoyan, there are problems in the sector, and the Government is doing everything to solve them.

It was noted that in the near future the Ministry of Finance will clearly define and separate the notions of ‘charitable grants’ and ‘service provision’.

The NGOs also considered it important to provide tax benefits to charity, as well as to legally allow organizations to carry out charity. The importance of implementing the toolkit for quick response of charity in crisis situations was emphasized.

The inadmissibility of forgeries under the name of charity was also mentioned, the tightening of the fight against them and the increase of trust in charity was emphasized.

It was noted that the discussions on the reforms of the charity sector are ongoing.