THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL IN FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Arthur Hovhannisyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
July 03, 2008
Armenia

Prime Minister, Head of Anti-corruption Council Tigran Sargsyan
answered the questions of the journalists, during the break of
the conference aimed at the discussion of Armenia’s international
anti-corruption obligations.

"The second stage of the anti-corruption program is the stage of
actions. What are you planning to do, what will you start with?"

"First of all it is very important for us to have a program that
will be perceptible for our people. We have already elaborated
the first part of that program, which has been discussed during
the session of the anti-corruption committee. At the moment we are
working on the second part of the program, by the participation of
the international experts, to bring this program in conformity with
the best international practice.

It is very important for us to involve a wide layer of society,
opposition representatives in the elaboration, realization and control
of this program, to have trust and involvement in this program and
the government’s activity. This is the only way to gain the trust of
our people and to show real results in this field."

"What conditions will be created for the opposition?"

"We have invited the opposition to participate in the works of the
monitoring group, which is very important. It is the monitoring
group that controls this program, controls the government. All the
documents will be accessible for those opposition representatives
who will agree to participate in the realization of this program."

"Is this anti-corruption struggle imposed upon Armenia by the West,
or it is a personal initiative?"

"I have already announced today that we initiated this anti-corruption
program because we are well conscious that it is an evil for our
country.

Because it hinders the normal social developments, our economic growth,
and jeopardizes the future of our nation. This is the reason why we
started this struggle.

I strongly believe we must find our way to fight corruption. A method
that will be perceptible for our society, to make a wide layer of
society participate in this struggle. This is the only guarantee
for success.

It is not a secret that every nation, every state has got its own
perception of corruption. The latter is manifested in different ways in
different countries and different spheres. We must take into account
our peculiarities, the illnesses that we have in the Republic of
Armenia; we must be able to give right diagnosis and prescribe the
right medicine.

In my view the monitoring that we are going to realize by the
participation of the social organizations will provide an opportunity
for us to reveal all the ailing spheres and make it a matter of public
discussion, to make the society see all the existing problems. By
revealing these problems, we will be able to fight corruption
by joint efforts. In my view publicity is the principal tool for
fighting corruption."

"How do you imagine the participation of the journalists and the Mass
Media at the second stage of the implementation of the anti-corruption
program?"

"You see there is one very interesting thesis, that I have voiced
many times: "if you want to have responsible Mass Media, you must
firstly have a responsible government. This means we must be very
attentive towards the issues raised by the Mass Media. Naturally it
is impossible to solve any issue without Mass Media."