$100: MOST COMMON BRIBE SIZE IN YEREVAN’S UNIVERSITIES
AZG Armenian Daily #088, 17/05/2005
Survey
According to “perception of corruption and hazards in highest
educational establishments” survey the educational system of Armenia
is the most corrupted one. Education minister Sergo Yeritsian is
skeptical about this survey conducted by the student movements. “I do
not exclude that there are cases of bribery in our system but it’s
ridiculous to call the system the most corrupted one”, Yeritsian
said. The sociological survey was conducted by the support of UNDP,
OSCE and the Armenian Government.
14.6% of 490 students in 12 highest educational establishments
named the educational system as the most corrupted one, 13.1% – Tax
Collecting Service, 12.4 – jural institutes, 12.4 – police. The least
corrupted institutions are the church, sport, culture, international
organizations and the sphere of ecology protection. The most corrupted
educational establishments are the Yerevan State University (15.3%),
Agricultural Academy (15.1%) and Yerevan Medical University (14).
73.6% said that the most usual size of bribes is $100. As it could
be expected, students named the periods of entrance and graduation
exams as the times of “flourishing” of bribery.
UNDP employee Vahan Asatrian thinks that it is natural that the
students consider educational system the most corrupted one. “A person
in a certain sphere overestimates the problems in his sphere. Students
consider universities to be most corrupted and those engaged in jural
system see their system as such”, he said.
By Ruzan Poghosian