Armenians have no hope for salvation from corruption

/By AzerNews/

By Laman Sadigova

It has been almost four years since the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan assured citizens that businesses should be separated from the government. Meanwhile, there are large number of media reports that show businesses continue to be owned by the family members and relatives of senior officials.

In many countries, the government successfully fights against the first type of corruption and efforts usually yield positive results.

USAID mission director for Armenia Karen Hilliard said that obviously, in countries like Armenia, politics and business interests are not sufficiently separated. “What we call administrative corruption is a different level of corruption, when a citizen has to deal with government agencies, for example, on issues such as education, health, or with the police, and there is a risk of bribes.”

In April last year, Hilliard even published a special report that exposed how officials in Armenia working in tax and customs services continue creating illegal businesses that enjoy advantages over other entrepreneurs operating in the same market.

Answering the question of how the government will fight corruption (if it turns out that many of the family members and relatives of high-ranking officials own huge businesses) Karen Hilliard said, " I think that Armenia should create such a legislative and regulatory system that will enable it to separate government and business. The first step could be clarifying all the assets of the state and government officials and insert prescribed penalties against those who refuse to do this.”

Despite the mandate of the Anti-Corruption Council, which receives funds from the European Union and the USAID, nobody believes that it is bringing order to juridical irregularities and injustice in the society. The council formally began operations at the end of July and was supposed to include opposition and civil society members as well as government officials on board. But no one from the opposition or non-governmental organizations has joined, mainly due to skepticism about its efficiency.