A1plus
| 19:29:09 | 08-07-2005 | Social |
CORRUPTION IS EVERYWHERE
«The local governing bodies of Armenia are very weak, that’s why everything
here is corrupted, starting from the elections», Amalya Kostanyan, head of
the Armenian branch of the non-governmental organization «Transparency
International».
On July 7-9 in the hotel Yerevan within the framework of the program «NO to
Corruption: Political Control of the Local Self-Governing Bodies» a seminar
has been organized titled «The Polish Experience in the Combat against
Corruption». During the seminar issues like the local self-governing system
in Poland and the perception of corruption in Poland and in Armenia have
been discussed.
According to Amalya Kostanyan, combat against corruption does not mean to
try people but to improve the governing system, to secure transparency and,
which is most important, the responsibility of official before people.
Why should we combat corruption? Amalya Kostanyan thinks. «Not because
everyone knows it is a bad thing, but because we feel its disastrous effect.
It makes the both the social, and the economic, and the political, and the
moral situation worse and worse, as people have no hope, no belief, and they
come to think that everything can be bought and sold in this country».
Why Poland? According to Amalya Kostanyan, they could bring the example of
New Zealand or Finland which are almost completely «deprived» of corruption,
but «Do you think our history and culture is closer to New Zealand o Poland?
».
By the way, as Amalya Kostanyan informs, the seminar is the initiative of
Poland. «The Polish non-governmental organization applied to us to organize
the event. The second part of it will take place in Poland where 10
representatives of Armenia will discuss the same issue with the Polish
experts», she mentioned.