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The Armenian project objectives were:

• To conduct a comparative analysis about the perception on corruption of the general public vs representatives of local authorities.
• To present the experience described in the "La Paz Case study" to representatives of local authorities
• To present positive examples of anticorruption initiatives from other courtiers to LSGs representatives.
• To involve mayors in the development of community anti-corruption strategies elaboration

In order to achieve first objective the survey was conducted for the general public, the representatives of municipalities, in 6 communities from 3 provinces: Goris and Kapan communities in Syuniq province, Chambarak and Martuni communities of Gegharkunik province and Vedi and Ararat communities of Ararat province. The total number of respondents was 1365, from which 1298 community members and 67 LSG and municipality staff representatives. 502 respondents were interviewed in Gegharkunik province, 413 in Syuuniq and 450 in Ararat. Sampling was done in order to keep gender, age and education balance. The interviews were conducted by previously trained monitors under the supervision of monitoring specialist. The main point of the survey was to find out what is the perception about what is corruption, what are the roots of this problem, which are the most vulnerable to corruption areas in the local government activities and how could be corruption addressed. Since the survey was conducted among both - community members and LSG representatives, it was possible to have the picture from both sides and compare opinions. The differences between the perceptions of different provinces and communities members had been also analyzed. Here after are some of the most important results of this survey:

Community members had a more categorical answer to the question: Is there corruption in your community? 74% vs 48% LG representatives

Majority of the respondents, 75% of both LSG representatives and community members considered that corruption is an obstacle for their community development and expressed the opinion that if there wouldn't be corruption, their community would develop and prosper faster and in a more sustainable way.

As the main causes of corruption were identified: the impunity climate, the requests coming from the top and the corrupt behavior of the national authorities, which make local authorities corrupt also. The main areas vulnerable to corruption were identified as being: building permits issuing, land distribution, public procurement, properties acquisition and registration (cadastre), local taxes collection.

What was interesting is that LSG representatives were more aware that combating corruption is an urgency (42%) than community representatives (27%). That is another argument for the usefulness of the anticorruption approach promoted by this project, which implies working with local governments representatives and change/improve the organization from inside rather than through outside pressure (which anyway is weak).

Respondents were asked their opinion about who should fight corruption. The vast majority, 80% pointed toward the central government. But the next in the order of priorities, for 58%, the answer was that people themselves should fight corruption, followed by the judicial bodies, LSG, other Public organizations and the international community.

59% of the respondents were optimistic about the possibility of addressing successfully corruption at local level.

After the survey was finalized, the project staff conducted workshops in the capital cities of the provinces attended by mayors, vice mayors and/or heads of administration, financial division representatives from the cities involved in the survey and from other municipalities. During these workshops the survey results were presented as well as "La Paz Case study"; ways of adapting and implementing in Armenia this successful anticorruption experience was discussed. Participants were invited to apply in the project next step in order to receive support to elaborate community anticorruption strategies.

10 communities were selected out of 23 applications, 5 in Syunik and 5 in Gegharkunik Provinces. In each city were organized working groups composed by representatives of citizens, LSG and municipalities staff. The working groups meetings have been conducted based on the methodology provided in the "Corrupt cities - a Practical guide to cure and prevention" and training manual "Restore the health of your organization". The members of the working groups did corruption risk analysis using the survey results and the concepts/materials presented by the Millennium Association facilitators. Working groups developed local/community anticorruption strategies which were accepted by the community councils in 9 out of 10 communities.

The strategies include the following programs:
In Gegharkuniq province

• Vardenis - "Hot Line" (informational consultancy centre)
• Vardenik - "Raising awareness about activities of LSG through awagani" (increasing the role of city council members, accountability mechanism development, awareness raising)
• Tsovaghyugh - "Public Reception" (informational consultative centre, citizens control, monitoring)
• Chambarak - "Series of training on legislative topics" (awareness raising, education)
• Martuni - "Code of Ethics for municipality staff" (improving quality of service, PR policy, confidence building, data collection)

Syuniq province

• Khndzoresk - "Information centre" (consultations, ressource centre)
• Shinuhayr - "Centre of friendly law" (information-consultation centre)
• Goris - "Citizen control group" (citizens' control, transparency of the public procurement process, monitoring, data collection)
• Tegh - "Anticorruption centre" (information-consultation centre, monitoring, citizen control, data collection and analysis)

The project final event, the Summit, took place in October 2008, in Yerevan. Leaders of all communities, representatives of Central Government (3 vice Ministers, head of departments) and international development agencies attended it. The interest toward the survey results was very high, especially among Central Government representatives. The Armenian Government is in the process of developing a comprehensive anticorruption strategy and, as it was announced during the summit, some of the survey findings will be brought to the attention of the expert group responsible with the strategy development, and hopefully will be included into the strategy.