Poll Finds Public Distrust In Armenian Anti-Graft Plan
By Armen Zakarian 17/09/2004 10:26

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
September 17 2004

Armenians remain overwhelmingly skeptical about the success of their
government’s declared fight against corruption with almost half of
them believing that it itself is the biggest obstacle to the rule of
law, according to a new poll made public on Thursday.

The survey conducted by the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies (ACNIS), a private think-tank, shows that nearly
two thirds of about 2,000 people interviewed across the country
are not familiar with an anti-corruption strategy unveiled by the
authorities last year. Only 5 percent of them are confident that it
will be successfully implemented, ACNIS pollsters said. Forty-nine
percent said they would subscribe to the view that “a corrupt regime
can not fight against itself.” Others attributed the perceived lack
of results in the stated anti-graft crusade to government incompetence
and pervasive influence of business “oligarchs.”

The authorities’ anti-corruption plan approved by Western donors
is a set of largely legislative measures designed to curb illegal
practices such as bribery and nepotism. A special body headed by Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian was formed earlier this year to oversee
its implementation. The Council on Combating Corruption in turn set
up a “monitoring commission.”

The success of the council’s stated mission was called into question
in June by a senior representative of the Berlin-based watchdog
Transparency International. He said the body is likely to be
ineffectual because it is not independent.

According to the ACNIS survey, the most common popular perception
of the problem’s root causes is a political one, with 42.8 percent
saying that Armenia’s rulers lack legitimacy because they did not
come to power as a result of democratic elections. “In a country
that has disputed elections many people agree that the government
gives privileges and other rewards to those who helped them come to
power,” Stepan Safarian, a leading ACNIS analyst, told journalists,
presenting the survey results.

More than a third of those polled said they were offered bribes in
return for voting for particular candidates in last year’s presidential
and parliamentary elections. Most claimed to have refused to accept
the illegal payments.

Votes bribes are one the most frequent forms of Armenia’s chronic
electoral fraud which marred the 2003 elections criticized as
undemocratic by international observers.

The poll also suggests that nearly half of Armenians bribe government
officials at least once a year. The bulk of those who admitted doing
so said their kickbacks were meant to ensure fair and lawful treatment
by government bodies. Health care institutions, the judiciary and
the military were singled out by most respondents as the most corrupt
structures in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress