Corruption still reigns in Armenia

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Corruption remains Armenia's toughest challenge so far. Arguably, corruption has spread so virulently that it has gone beyond the government's control in these days.

Whatever the authorities have done to wipe bribery out of Armenia, tangible results have yet to materialize.

The world's influential organization combating corruption, Transparency International said widespread corruption remains in the field of public procurement, despite government efforts to curb it.

"Armenia has systemic problems in view of fighting the corruption," Transparency International expert, Artak Manukyan said.

Although it is possible to register a short-term progress in some directions via certain means, it will give no result in legislative or institutional terms hacked by severe bribery, claims Manukyan.

Armenia's controversial integration into the Eurasian Economic Union has come under spotlight in view of its corruption problem. As it happens, Manukyan believes Armenia's membership in the EEU actually opens the way for more opportunities of corruption.

"The government presents the EEU joining as a method of encouraging domestic producers, but this is the worst method, which paves the way serious corruption risks," Manukyan said.

He added that Armenia's activity within the EEU will create extra grounds to spread corruption furthermore. "For instance, the goods that we have previously purchased for certain amount of money, are now sold 15 percent more expensive,” Manukyan said.

On the International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9, last year, Representative of the OECD SIGMA Program, Phil Duncombe said the corruption was deepening in the whole world and it was a serious problem in many countries, including Armenia.

While explaining the peculiar signs of bribery in Armenia, Duncomb showed state officials' luxurious mansions and expensive cars as one of the main determinants proving widespread corruption in the post-Soviet country.

Official declarations of incomes in the Armenian parliament have justified Duncombe's words. Some 19 Armenian MPs have been revealed to be millionaires, among which Gagik Tsarukyan, Samvel Aleksanyan, Manvel Grigoryan, Armine Nagdalyan, Avet Adonts and others viewed as the country's "creme de la creme" .

The index of freedom from corruption in Armenia stood at 26.7 which is under the world average, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom. It shows that bribery is deeply rooted in Armenian society and none of the adopted anti-corruption measures have tackled so far the rampant bribery.