GLOBAL CORRUPTION SURVEY FINDS NO IMPROVEMENT IN ARMENIA
By Anna Saghabalian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 26 2007

Endemic government corruption in Armenia has not decreased in the
past year despite Armenian leaders’ assurances they are addressing
the problem in earnest, according to an annual global survey released
by an international anti-graft watchdog on Wednesday.

The Berlin-based Transparency International again rated countries
of the world on a 10-point scale, with zero indicating an extremely
high degree of corruption as perceived by experts, entrepreneurs and
ordinary citizens.

Armenia and five other states ranked 99th out of 180 nations covered
by Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index. It
was assigned a score of 3.0, faring slightly worse than it did in
the previous CPI released one year ago. The score is based on seven
corruption-related surveys conducted in Armenia by other organizations,
including the World Bank.

Armenia was again judged to be less corrupt that most other ex-Soviet
states, including Russia and Azerbaijan. The latter occupies 150th
place in the rankings. By contrast, Armenia’s other ex-Soviet neighbor,
Georgia, jumped to 79th place, having seen its CPI score rise from
2.9 to 3.4.

Amalia Kostanian, head of Transparency’s Armenian affiliate, the
Center for Regional Development (CRD), said the findings of the
latest survey are a further indication of a lack of progress in the
Armenian government’s stated anti-corruption efforts. She said those
efforts have proved ineffectual because of their heavy emphasis on
legal amendments and what she called a lack of government commitment
to rule of law.

Kostanian argued that prosecution of senior government officials on
corruption charges remain extremely rare. "Risks involved in corrupt
practices remain very low," she told reporters.

The government unveiled in late 2003 and claims to have successfully
implemented a three-year plan of actions aimed at tackling bribery
and other corrupt practices. However, there is little evidence that
the set of mainly legislative measures has had a major impact on the
situation on the ground.

Earlier this year, Kostanian resigned from a government body
monitoring the program’s implementation in protest against its
perceived inactivity. The resignation followed the publication of
a CRD opinion poll which found that nearly two-thirds of Armenians
believe that corruption has actually increased in recent years.

In a December 2006 interview with RFE/RL, the late Prime Minister
Andranik Markarian admitted that his government’s anti-corruption
drive has not been "as effective as we hoped." He said Yerevan will ask
Western donors to help it draw up a new strategy that will "ascertain
mechanisms for putting the [anti-graft] legislative framework into
practice." It is not clear if his successor, Serzh Sarkisian, intends
to do that.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress