ARMENIA’S LATEST STAGED SHOW – YET ANOTHER ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

Armen Arakelyan

21:24, February 20, 2015

Corruption and the struggle against it haven’t been topics of
discussion in Armenia for a while now, and that’s not unintentional.

Only serious issues and problems needing solving are discussed in
Armenia. The public doesn’t talk about corruption any more because
it’s pointless, and the leadership isn’t talking about it because it
believes corruption barely exists in Armenia.

Well, to be correct, the leadership says it exists but in the form
of bribery, and not on the governmental level, but within society.

It was Armenia’s National Assembly President Galust Sahakyan who
exposed this to be the reality in Armenia.

At a press conference held during Vice President of Uruguay Danilo
Astori’s visit last December to Armenia, Sahakyan was quoted as saying
the following:

It’s difficult to prove where bribery exists, where corruption exists.

Of course, corruption exists in Armenia, and there’s a struggle against
it, but it’s not a nationwide struggle, because any given structure
in Armenia that plays a part in the public sphere that isn’t focused
on corruption is certainly focused on bribery. That relates to public
organizations and journalists.”

Whether corruption under the guise of bribery exists in only this
sector is proven by work. Recently, thanks to journalism, mostly
doctors, lecturers and rarely inspectors, have been arrested and
detained for corruption. The same applies to judges in isolated cases
as well.

But the government is clearly not ready to deal with that trivial
amount of corruption. To prevent the last grains of corruption to take
root, the government decided to set up an Anti-Corruption Council. And
since it’s only logical that the ones who must get rid of corruption
are those whose hands aren’t dirty and who have made money by the
honest sweat of their brow, it was decided that Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan should head the council.

In addition to two civil society representatives and one member
of each political opposition faction in the National Assembly, the
council will be composed of Minister – Chief of Government Staff Davit
Harutyunyan, Justice Minister Hovhannes Manukyan, Finance Minister
Gagik Khachatryan, and Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan.

It’s a bit upsetting that that the individual best versed about
corruption in Armenia, Galust Sahakyan, will not serve. That this
council is really serious about rooting out the last grains of bribery
and corruption is evidenced by the fact that a committee of experts,
attached to the council, will also be created.

All the anti-corruption initiatives made in Armenia by the council and
committees, including their programs, strategies, piles of concepts,
communications, meetings and round-table discussions conducted with
serious faces and clenched fists are nothing new.

An initiative with practically the same name was introduced in 2004,
and that was also headed by the Prime Minister. After several years
of diligent work, not only did the council draft and approve a
strategy for tackling corruption, but it also drafted reforms for
two generations. And the National Assembly president’s position
that corruption exists only in the public sector comes from that
painstaking work.

Another similar body formed in the early 2000s by the Armenian
President was called the Anti-Corruption Strategy Implementation
Monitoring Commission. Just how that commission concluded its
undertakings is, perhaps, not important. That the work was done is all
that matters. It should go without saying that with this new initiative
led by Hovik Abrahamyan (apparently the previous programs weren’t
well-planned), corruption is condemned and will finally be weeded out.

To achieve those results, the ministers on the council under
Abrahamyan’s leadership, with a wave of the magic wand, will suddenly
start to amicably declare the sources of their billions of accumulated
wealth along with the methods implemented. And they’ll finally explain
how they managed to stack up so many accomplishments with their modest
salaries. They won’t have any choice, because the Chairman of the
Armenian Committee on Ethics is also on the council.

In case you aren’t informed, there is such a committee in Armenia. The
offshore affair, which was tied to former Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan, will finally be disclosed.

And the Minister of Justice will reveal what was the “misunderstanding”
that resulted in freeing from jail, after two or three years behind
bars, high ranking police officials found guilty of embezzlement and
other serious criminal offences.

And the Prosecutor General will explain how officials charged with
swindling the Artsakh Army out of millions in a meat provision scam
walked away free after being charged.

In all likelihood, the creation of the new council will also have
an effect on the local oligarchs. They won’t wait any longer for
the president to order the prime minister to examine their tax
liabilities. Of their own accord and feeling their responsibility
as citizens, they will begin to document their real sales numbers,
faithfully pay their taxes, break up their monopolies to encourage
competition and completely stay out of politics. They also won’t
pay out bribes during elections and won’t appear on political party
proportionate lists of candidates.

So things aren’t really as bad as they might seem. We can consider
all of Armenia’s issues with corruption solved with the formation of
the Anti-Corruption Council. We can even start thinking about setting
a non-working holiday marking the victory of the end to corruption.

Now all we have to do is anticipate the beginning of this new show.

Happy viewing.