“We are the U.S. government, not characters in a James Bond film” _ Ambassador R. Mills
“We are willing to work with any Armenian governmental institution that demonstrates a commitment to fighting corruption,” U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills noted the aforesaid in his speech delivered before American Chamber of Commerce of Armenia, Panorama.am reports.
He underscored that the continued support of the US government for the Anti-Corruption Council is contingent on the achievement of measureable results.
“The Anti-Corruption Council failed to register the progress we had expected, thus 2.5% of the money allocated for its support was actually released to the Council. I hope this fact will assuage the suspicions of the many people who speculated that USAID delivered the entire sum of money to the Council in an unmarked briefcase– we’re the U.S. government, not characters in a James Bond film. We have shared with the Prime Minister our need to see concrete progress from the Council and I know he wants to reshape the Council and its work as well. Based on the outcome of our discussions with the Prime Minister, we will decide on next steps, including whether to continue our support to the Council or redirect those funds to a different anti-corruption mechanism,” the ambassador added.
To note in November 2015 U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills highlighted the four priority areas for his term_ deepening the business and trade relations between the two countries, helping Armenia to fight corruption, forming a strong and vibrant civil society and explaining U.S. foreign policy to the Armenian people. Today today’s meeting with the reports he presented the activities carried out in the four areas and the achieved results.