OUR PROBLEM IS TO REVEAL SHORTCOMINGS

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
22 Aug 2006

On August 25 the NKR president signed the decree on setting up the
Committee on Ethics of Public Officials under the NKR president. The
chair Murad Petrossian assured in a news conference that the media
would regularly be informed about the activities of the committee. On
August 17, the members of the committee met with news reporters. The
first group of questions was on the activities of the committee and
its methods. In the beginning, Murad Petrossian stated that a number
of negative phenomena in our society (including corruption, misuse
of power, breaking laws) should be perceived as the everyday reality,
and we should try to help the society evaluate these phenomena duly.
According to him, this is not a purely local thing. This problem
persists in developed countries as well. Murad Petrossian believes
that one of the goals of the committee is to present corruption to the
society as it is. Murad Petrossian presented the objectives of the
committee, namely its members must make essential efforts to reveal
negative phenomena in different spheres. At the same time, they are
supposed to create a so-called bank of cadres. With regard to timing,
the chair of the committee said priorities would be outlined after
a survey in every sphere. Throughout this work contact between the
committee and the public will be sustained. For further actions,
Murad Petrossian said they would start with gathering information
on every sphere and every settlement. "These data will be classifies
and wait for their turn," he said, adding that efforts will be made
in cases which will be extremely harmful for the public life. By a
preliminary plan, the committee will work with several educational
institutions. Then efforts will be made to battle breaking traffic
rules by people riding in their own cars, who are left unpunished. In
answer to the question whether the committee will be able to influence
the behavior of a non-conscientious official in one way or another, the
chair of the committee said their goal is to reveal negative phenomena
and to enable replacement of non-conscientious officials by more
qualified people. The rest is the problem of other agencies. During the
news conference the bylaws of the committee were discussed as well,
namely the staff of the committee is not limited. One needs to be
known "as an honest person and have the reference of at least three
of the members of the committee" to be included in the committee. The
news reporters were not allowed to take part in the second part of
the meeting, during which "definite cases were to be discussed,"
the chair of the committee said. He promised to inform the media
about the findings of the meeting within a month.

Norair Hovsepian.
22-08-2006