CORRUPTION: A CONTINUOUS HUMANITARIAN DISASTER

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[07:52 pm] 23 September, 2008

It is very difficult to get public support in the fight against
corruption in a country that has witnessed the events of March 1 and
where people live in fear", stated today president of "Transparency
International" Amalya Kostanyan. Kostanyan noted that in a country
where there are confidential hearings, people don’t trust one another
and we have a situation when everyone is complaining about corruption,
but give a negative response when you ask them if they are personally
involved in such activities.

Kostanyan stated that the corruption situation has not changed in
Armenia in the past couple of years, despite the activities of the
anti-corruption program drafted by RA authorities and, according to
them, the productive struggle. The public arrests of a couple of low
or high-level officials and the sentences are not enough to have an
influence on the anti-corruption plan. Those cases, according to
Kostanyan, are minor cases of corruption and the matter of great
concern remains the level of corruption in the political field,
for example, electoral bribes.

Amalya Kostanyan noted that observations have begun in Armenia since
December 1, 2003 when the RA authorities drafted the anti-corruption
strategy and started the fight against it. But during that, indicators
have gone up and down, or as Kostanyan put it, "we are stagnating."

Today, Armenia ranks 109th in the list of 180 corrupted countries
and that can be explained by the presidential and local government
body elections. Out of the post-Soviet countries, Georgia has seen
progress, whereas Armenia, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan have
fallen behind. According to the report, corruption is on the rise
not only in developing, but in developed countries as well. However,
the high level of corruption in low-budget countries is a "continuous
humanitarian disaster."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress