POLL SHOWS CORRUPTION IS ARMENIA’S MAJOR PROBLEM

Arminfo
19 Apr 07

Yerevan, 19 April: In the opinion of 73.9 per cent of those polled
by the Transparency International’s centre for anticorruption
investigations and initiatives, Armenia’s electoral system is the
most corrupt [sphere] in the country.

Chairman of the Transparency-Armenia Amalia Kostanyan told students
of Yerevan State University today that such polls ahead of the
parliamentary election should be a stimulus to conduct free and
transparent election in the country.

She went on to say that the respondents described as super-corrupt
the following state agencies – the traffic police (68.2 per cent),
the police (63.3 per cent), the tax inspection (63.3 per cent),
the state customs committee (60.8 per cent), education system (48.5
per cent), health (46.2 per cent) and the army (40.4 per cent). As
to officials, 63.8 per cent of the respondents said that the most
corrupt are Armenian ministers, 52.9 per cent said the most corrupt is
the prime minister, 52.4 per cent mentioned the Prosecutor-General’s
Office, 51.3 per cent – the Armenian government administration, 48.9
per cent – MPs, 46.2 per cent – the presidential administration and
44.5 per cent the president himself.

Those polled said that main reasons of the widespread corruption was
the ineffective implementation of laws, the imperfect constitution,
the lack of a punishment system, and the people’s tolerance towards
corruption. The poll showed that 69.4 per cent of the respondents
did not know about the existence of an anticorruption strategy,
84.4 per cent did not know about the existence of the council to
fight corruption, 91.4 per cent about the monitoring commission, and
84.3 per cent did not know about Armenia’s international obligation
to fight corruption. At the same time 90 per cent of the respondents
think that corruption is a major problem in Armenia.

[Passage omitted: the poll was conducted in 31 cities and 40 villages]