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NO POSITIVE CHANGE IN TACKLING CORRUPTION IN ARMENIA IN 2011: WATCHDOG (UPDATED)
epress.am
12.09.2011
In 2003, the United Nations declared Dec. 9 as the International
Day on the Fight against Corruption. With this in mind, the Armenian
branch of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center issued
a statement today on the state of corruption in Armenia.
In 2011, the Government of Armenian continued to adopt legislative
and sub-legislative anti-corruption acts; in particular, the new Law
on Procurement or the Law on Public Service.
"Several other laws and decrees have been also adopted to implement the
requirements of the national Anti-Corruption Strategy and its 2009-2012
Action Plan, as well as to meet its international anti-corruption
obligations. Incidents of corruption were also disclosed. For example,
the Chamber of Control of the Republic of Armenia uncovered incidents
of corruption in different sectors. In 2011, law enforcement bodies
continued to regularly expose corruption crimes and arrest public
officials, in some cases, even high-ranking ones. The leaders of
several opposition parties continued to point to the huge scales of
corruption in the country.
"However, despite this, the perceptions of local and international
experts, as well as those of ordinary citizens, remained unchanged.
And, according to those perceptions, corruption in Armenia continues
to remain widespread and is systemic by nature. The results of studies
carried out by reputable international organizations, in particular,
the values of the Transparency International's (TI) 2011 Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) and CPI ranking table, published on Dec. 1,
2011, also indicate this fact. From year to year, Armenia's position
drops in this ranking table (this year it went down by 6 places),
letting it be bypassed by such countries, which only several years ago
were at much worse positions than Armenia. The results of a corruption
perception survey conducted by the Armenian Office of the Caucasus
Research Resources Centers (CRRC-Armenia) in 2010 and published this
year are also alarming. In particular, in 2010, 65% of the respondents
thought that corruption was the reality of our life. It should be
mentioned that this number gradually increased from year to year. In
2008, the same survey conducted by the same organization indicated
that only 51% of the respondents gave such answer, and in 2009, 59%,"
reads the Transparency International statement.
Summarizing the above, the corruption watchdog notes: "And because
2011 did not witness positive change in tackling corruption, we are
left only to fix the current dilemma in this area, which will make
our nation's dream to have a prosperous, affluent and democratic
country even more unreachable."
From: A. Papazian
epress.am
12.09.2011
In 2003, the United Nations declared Dec. 9 as the International
Day on the Fight against Corruption. With this in mind, the Armenian
branch of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center issued
a statement today on the state of corruption in Armenia.
In 2011, the Government of Armenian continued to adopt legislative
and sub-legislative anti-corruption acts; in particular, the new Law
on Procurement or the Law on Public Service.
"Several other laws and decrees have been also adopted to implement the
requirements of the national Anti-Corruption Strategy and its 2009-2012
Action Plan, as well as to meet its international anti-corruption
obligations. Incidents of corruption were also disclosed. For example,
the Chamber of Control of the Republic of Armenia uncovered incidents
of corruption in different sectors. In 2011, law enforcement bodies
continued to regularly expose corruption crimes and arrest public
officials, in some cases, even high-ranking ones. The leaders of
several opposition parties continued to point to the huge scales of
corruption in the country.
"However, despite this, the perceptions of local and international
experts, as well as those of ordinary citizens, remained unchanged.
And, according to those perceptions, corruption in Armenia continues
to remain widespread and is systemic by nature. The results of studies
carried out by reputable international organizations, in particular,
the values of the Transparency International's (TI) 2011 Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) and CPI ranking table, published on Dec. 1,
2011, also indicate this fact. From year to year, Armenia's position
drops in this ranking table (this year it went down by 6 places),
letting it be bypassed by such countries, which only several years ago
were at much worse positions than Armenia. The results of a corruption
perception survey conducted by the Armenian Office of the Caucasus
Research Resources Centers (CRRC-Armenia) in 2010 and published this
year are also alarming. In particular, in 2010, 65% of the respondents
thought that corruption was the reality of our life. It should be
mentioned that this number gradually increased from year to year. In
2008, the same survey conducted by the same organization indicated
that only 51% of the respondents gave such answer, and in 2009, 59%,"
reads the Transparency International statement.
Summarizing the above, the corruption watchdog notes: "And because
2011 did not witness positive change in tackling corruption, we are
left only to fix the current dilemma in this area, which will make
our nation's dream to have a prosperous, affluent and democratic
country even more unreachable."
From: A. Papazian