BUSINESS AND POLITICS: MUTUAL LOVE OR CORRUPTION?
Naira Hayrumyan

KarabakhOpen
17-09-2007 13:22:01

After his affirmation for the post of prime minister of NKR Ara
Harutiunyan addressed the parliament and said after his appointment
he will resign from parliament and leadership of the Azat Hayrenik
Party, as well as his business.

It is a crucial issue since currently politics and business in Karabakh
are tightly knit. Naturally, we cannot deny that politics is the
continuation of economy, but the legal provision that a politician
cannot run a business still has legal validity. In any democratic
country there are laws which bar public officials and law enforcement
and security agency workers from running businesses.

In Karabakh, there is such a law even though it may seem strange.

Karabakh is a tiny country and everyone knows what businesses
one public official or another owns. Nobody will be surprised in
Karabakh that a senior official of the urban planning ministry owns
a development company which has contracts with the government. And
though it is a major violation of the law, people say "he is smart
enough not to miss the chance".

Another tendency has been observed over the past few years –
businessmen in government. These people depend on the government. This
dependence has two aspects: contracts with government and "good terms"
with tax and other agencies.

With the limited market contracts with government acquire special
importance. Besides, warm relations with tax agencies are also very
important because with the tough tax administration sanctions for
insignificant breaches are higher than the taxes. Therefore, it is
important to be in parliament or in government to have connections
there.

In some countries, it is lobbying, and the money paid for lobbying
someone’s interests is taxed. In other counties, it is called
corruption and is considered to hinder development of liberal market
and competition.

According to the NKR law, this is corruption. Therefore, the move
the premier who owns one of the major businesses in Karabakh can
be perceived as the first move towards battling corruption. If the
second move follows in, and other public officials honor the law.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress