CORRUPTION: A CONTINUOUS HUMANITARIAN DISASTER
Support A1+!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.”
