Legislative-practical
systemic issues related to proper notification of citizens within enforcement
proceedings remain unresolved.
In
particular, both in 2020, as well as before and after that year, complaints
were addressed about the fact that people were not notified of enforcement
proceedings against them, imposition of a lien on their property and funds, and
any other decisions made by the Compulsory Enforcement officer. They only get
informed about this when, for example, they want to pay off their liabilities
to the bank or make a transfer but the bank informs them about enforcement
proceedings as well as about the imposed lien that has already been initiated.
Complaints
were addressed to the Defender on the issue of being notified late or not at
all of the decisions made by the Compulsory Enforcement Service.
The
following was clarified with the Compulsory Enforcement Service which stated
that on February 1, 2021, the latter signed a "Hybrid Post" service
contract with Haypost CJSC for the provision of postal services. The Compulsory Enforcement Service does not keep
statistics on late the notification or the absence of it under the said
contract.
The
Compulsory Enforcement Officer sends its decisions and notifications in the
prescribed manner, according to which the parties are considered duly notified
when those decisions are posted on the official website of public notifications
of the Republic of Armenia. In this regard, it is worrying that under the
current regulations, the Compulsory Enforcement Service does not maintain
appropriate statistics to assess the effectiveness of the system under the
above agreement in terms of ensuring the proper delivery of postal services of
the Compulsory Enforcement Service by HaypostCJSC.
Taking
into consideration that the decisions made by the Compulsory Enforcement
Officer are sent to the parties to the enforcement proceedings not by
registered mail, but by postal delivery, thus ensuring proper notification of
these decisions to individuals in the absence of state control becomes even
more problematic.
In
case of sending the decisions and notifications of the Compulsory Enforcement
Officer by postal delivery, the proof of sending them to the addressee shall be
attached to the enforcement proceedings.
According
to the following article, in case of sending the decisions and notifications by
post, the Compulsory Enforcement Officer is obliged to attach only the proof of
sending them to the addressee of the enforcement proceedings, but they have no
obligation to attach the proof of receipt of the letter by the addressee. This
is problematic from the point of view that in practice there are cases when the
addressees do not receive the letters because, for example, they have not lived
at their place of residence for some time or are gone for other reasons.
As a
result, a person's right to be heard and to get acquainted with the documents
is violated, as they are deprived of the opportunity to get acquainted with the
documents of the administrative proceedings, to express their opinions on the
factual circumstances discussed in the administrative proceedings. The
mentioned issue was addressed in the 2019 and 2020 annual reports of the Human
Rights Defender.
Therefore,
a more effective way to send a postal item is to send the Compulsory
Enforcement Officer’s decisions and notifications by registered mail, in which
case the Compulsory Enforcement Officer is obliged to attach proof of receipt
by the addressee of the enforcement proceedings. Whereas, under the current
regulations, it is applied in practice only in cases when the calculation of a
certain period for the implementation of actions during the enforcement
proceedings is conditioned by the fact of receiving the relevant decision or
notification.
Moreover,
at the moment, another important issue is that not all decisions of the
Compulsory Enforcement Officer are published on the official website of public
notifications; an issue raised in the Defender’s 2018-2019 annual reports as
well.
It
should be noted that in these annual reports, the issue of not posting the
decisions on "azdarar.am" website other than those of the Compulsory
Enforcement Officer on the suspending of the enforcement proceedings and
selling of the property by compulsory electronic auction was raised. In order
to solve the following problem, the Defender proposed to bring the law
enforcement practice established in the Compulsory Enforcement Service in line
with the current legal regulations, ensuring the publication of all the
decisions made by the Compulsory Enforcement Officer within the enforcement
proceedings on "azdarar.am" website.
Meanwhile,
regular surveys conducted on "azdarar.am" in 2020 demonstrate that
the website continued to publish mainly only the above-mentioned decisions,
which indicate that the issue remains relevant.
The
current situation is condemnable, as it puts a person in deadlock. This is a
serious issue as it causes difficulties for people, but still remains
unresolved.
Հայերեն
