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There Are Doubts About Misappropriation of Taxpayer Money
Interview with deputy head of Transparency International
Anti-Corruption Center Sona Aivazyan
Certain NGOs which are not known to the public have received funding
from the government. Do you know anything about these NGOs?
None of these NGOs is known to me except Development and Integration
NGO. The latter was set up at the beginning of Serzh Sargsyan's tenure
and obviously with his support. Having been recognized by the RA
President Decree as a partner NGO, it has awarded grants to unknown
NGOs from state funds.
How do you fight corruption now? There seems to be more concreteness,
and the methods of fight are now more concrete.
I would like to talk about corruption in the non-governmental sector.
There are innumerable suspicions on involvement of NGOs in corruption
deals, and the main solution, I think, should be transparency of NGOs.
They must be accountable to not only the donor but also the public,
publish reports on their members, funds and their outputs. This
principle must be applied more strictly by the NGOs which receive
grants on the money of Armenian taxpayers. Transparency of decision
making and financial accountability will limit significantly the
possibility of NGOs with a suspicious origin to handle and misuse
public funds.
Government bodies have an interesting tendency. They have started
`supporting' the civil society and the impression is that the purpose
is to annihilate it. What is the reason? Are they afraid of that
movement or are there other reasons as well?
The practice of funding NGOs through a partner NGO was established
during Robert Kocharyan's tenure. At that time the function was
performed by the Center for Policy Dialogue and Development which does
not exist anymore. In fact, the two presidents of Armenia abuse the
idea of social partnership and imitate funding of social programs by
way of titular NGOs. Not seeing results of NGOs which receive grants
and judging by the practice of kickback recognized by Serzh Sargsyan,
the money of Armenian taxpayers have been misappropriated through
partner organizations and NGOs which received grants. The heads of
these organizations are the same people and their relatives, which
narrows the scope of distribution of those funds and the risks for
their revelation.
Fake NGOs servicing the government and/or misappropriating funds are
not something new. Such NGOs participated in Millennium Challenge
Program, are now involved in different public councils which imitate
cooperation with the society and, on the other hand, block the way for
real and independent NGOs. Such are some organizations which observe
elections, namely the NGOs which deploy immense number of observers
who mainly service the government and later report free and fair
conduct of elections.
It should be noted that the Armenian government, usually following the
example of their Russian counterparts, make efforts from time to time
to counteract the activities of independent NGOs and their critical
approach. Efforts were made to limit lobbying by NGO, strengthen state
control. One of the recent efforts is the concept of development of
civil society organizations put forth by the Public Council.
Karine Ionesyan
16:13 24/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/29967
From: Baghdasarian
Interview with deputy head of Transparency International
Anti-Corruption Center Sona Aivazyan
Certain NGOs which are not known to the public have received funding
from the government. Do you know anything about these NGOs?
None of these NGOs is known to me except Development and Integration
NGO. The latter was set up at the beginning of Serzh Sargsyan's tenure
and obviously with his support. Having been recognized by the RA
President Decree as a partner NGO, it has awarded grants to unknown
NGOs from state funds.
How do you fight corruption now? There seems to be more concreteness,
and the methods of fight are now more concrete.
I would like to talk about corruption in the non-governmental sector.
There are innumerable suspicions on involvement of NGOs in corruption
deals, and the main solution, I think, should be transparency of NGOs.
They must be accountable to not only the donor but also the public,
publish reports on their members, funds and their outputs. This
principle must be applied more strictly by the NGOs which receive
grants on the money of Armenian taxpayers. Transparency of decision
making and financial accountability will limit significantly the
possibility of NGOs with a suspicious origin to handle and misuse
public funds.
Government bodies have an interesting tendency. They have started
`supporting' the civil society and the impression is that the purpose
is to annihilate it. What is the reason? Are they afraid of that
movement or are there other reasons as well?
The practice of funding NGOs through a partner NGO was established
during Robert Kocharyan's tenure. At that time the function was
performed by the Center for Policy Dialogue and Development which does
not exist anymore. In fact, the two presidents of Armenia abuse the
idea of social partnership and imitate funding of social programs by
way of titular NGOs. Not seeing results of NGOs which receive grants
and judging by the practice of kickback recognized by Serzh Sargsyan,
the money of Armenian taxpayers have been misappropriated through
partner organizations and NGOs which received grants. The heads of
these organizations are the same people and their relatives, which
narrows the scope of distribution of those funds and the risks for
their revelation.
Fake NGOs servicing the government and/or misappropriating funds are
not something new. Such NGOs participated in Millennium Challenge
Program, are now involved in different public councils which imitate
cooperation with the society and, on the other hand, block the way for
real and independent NGOs. Such are some organizations which observe
elections, namely the NGOs which deploy immense number of observers
who mainly service the government and later report free and fair
conduct of elections.
It should be noted that the Armenian government, usually following the
example of their Russian counterparts, make efforts from time to time
to counteract the activities of independent NGOs and their critical
approach. Efforts were made to limit lobbying by NGO, strengthen state
control. One of the recent efforts is the concept of development of
civil society organizations put forth by the Public Council.
Karine Ionesyan
16:13 24/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/29967
From: Baghdasarian