WHERE IS THE SECRET OF CORRUPTION HIDDEN?
Arthur Hovhannisyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
July 03, 2008
Armenia

Speaking about the anti-corruption struggle initiated by the government
Tigran Sargsyan pointed out two spheres.

"In my view the stem of corruption from where we must start if we want
to be a success is the sphere of tax and customs bureaucracy. This is
the sphere where all the secrets are hidden. Here is the secret of the
construction of a democratic society; here is the secret of the ability
to hold free and fair elections, issues connected with free rivalry,
issues connected with the formation of a normal business atmosphere.

All the bases nourishing corruption are hidden in the spheres of tax
and customs bureaucracy. And it is a very profound problem. Therefore
we have targeted these two spheres. I believe if we record success in
these two spheres during the coming 3 years, believe me after 5 years
we will live in a qualitatively different society. It is an illness.

How are we going to solve this problem? How are we going to get rid
of this sickness in the tax and customs spheres? We have elaborated
a clear program.

The best specialists of the world have participated in the elaboration
of this program, for example from New Zealand, a country, which is
considered a champion for the low level of corruption. They have
already examined our program, our approaches.

What do we need? Firstly this program must be a complex program,
which means it must cover all the issues.

Second: this program can’t be implemented eclectically, which means
we must put into effect all the points of the program.

Third: this program must be a public program and you must follow the
process of the implementation of all the points. If we are late in
something then we must make a public report and explain the reason why
we are late in the implementation of this or that point of the program.

The program that we have already submitted includes certain norms,
which will give us the opportunity to exclude corruption risks in tax
and customs spheres. They are new rules regarding the behavior of the
employees of the tax service, it is the creation of a counter-balance
inside the tax service, it is the council formed under the Prime
Minister, it is the function of monitoring, which will be implemented
in the office very close to the Prime Minister.

The formation of the before mentioned counter-balances, the exclusion
of risks and the publicity gives us an opportunity to have qualitative
changes in this sphere during the coming 3 years."

As we know one of the requirements of GREKO is to reduce the number
of the persons with immunity right. What are we doing in this regard?

According to the Prime Minister: "The clear attitude of the President
is to reduce the number of the persons with immunity right, everyone
is equal in front of the law. Only a small group of people will enjoy
this right, based on political requirement and taking into account
the international practice.

Unfortunately in our reality the list of the persons with immunity
right is too big. According to the clear stance of the country’s
President and international experts we must review this list. We
completely agree with the position of GREKO regarding this issue.

Can we consider satisfactory the work of the law enforcers in fighting
corruption?

"If we say that at the moment corruption is the most serious problem
in the Republic of Armenia, this means the problem still exists and
we didn’t manage to solve this problem together with the law enforcers.

But if we speak about the future, then we must say that the program
and the work implemented by the law enforcers at the moment really
inspires great hope. I strongly believe very soon our society will
see that these steps are really productive."