DALLAKYAN SKEPTICAL ABOUT FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

Panorama.am
19:17 04/10/06

The Convention on Corruption obliges to call to responsibility
for bribing national and public officials. Justice Minister Davit
Harutunyan also said officials will have to file statements on their
property.

The minister admits corruption is wide-spread in all spheres in the
republic. Answering to the question of Tatul Manaseryan, deputy of
parliament, on the recent data release by World Bank according to
which corruption has grown in Armenia, the minister answered, "these
data are based on sociological surveys and do not refer to facts." The
minister said no cases of corruption were reported in customs whereas
the WB report especially points to this field as very corrupt.

Viktor Dallakyan, deputy of parliament, is sure that corrupt top
officials cannot fight corruption in the country. Speaking about
filing about the property, Dallakyan said some officials wear more
expensive underwear than dozen times of some people’s salary.

Dallakyan is skeptical about the Convention on Corruption because the
car of Aghvan Hovsepyan, chief prosecutor who is supposed to fight
corruption, costs $70,000.

There were only seven deputies in the session hall while the parliament
was discussing the issue of prime significance.