Yesterday one of the daily newspapers published an interesting article. When they asked the spokesman of the central electoral commission how the CEC head had bought his “KIA-OPIRUS” model service vehicle and where he had found that much money and how much had paid, they were told that the question concerned private issues and did not concern the electoral procedures and that they could not answer to that question.
In any normal country such answer would firstly seem funny, and later would bring to serious results since service vehicle is not a private issue, furthermore, the price they paid for it was not inherited by Garegin Azaryan. That money was paid from the pockets of the Armenian taxpayers, who have the right to ask how their money is being spent. Such questions are one of the means how the government shall be accountable to the public. Furthermore, it is also one of the means of fighting corruption.
Everyone speaks about corruption; starting from the very opposition activists and ending up with the top officials. At the same time, if you don’t know who is speaking you can never distinguish them from being a government or opposition representative. However, it is one thing to say, and another thing to do…
On the other hand, people hear all the time about double-digit economy growth and stabile development. For instance, according to the information of the national statistic department, during the first quarter of this year the economy grew by 11.2%. There are certain calculations, one of which is the following: If Bangladesh could cut off the capacities of corruption in the country down to the level of Singapore, the GDP per person in that country would grow by 1.8%. There aren’t such calculations for Armenia. Notwithstanding, according to certain calculations, the corruption expenses on the part of businesses in our country are equal to 10% of the total expenses generally made. However, we are developing rapidly and have double-digit economic growth, thus there is no need to make efforts in favor of developing faster by “a couple of percents”. Furthermore, there is no need for that since the national statisticians are ready to “paint” more percents to help the international reputation of the country and inspire the public.
During a discussion concerning the Armenian economy and corruption issues an international specialist said, “Don’t worry, Bangladesh is in a worse situation”. Certainly, this person does not know that there is a big difference between these two nations, which is that they don’t say that when they had a rich culture, the other nations did not exist in the past. Instead of that they are quietly doing their job, even if slowly, but they are fighting corruption. As for our country, we are speaking about the rich culture and double-digit economic growth, but are stagnating deeming to the level of Bangladesh.
If one asks the authorities what they have done so far for fighting corruption, they will show a long and very impressing list of actions deemed to have been taken.
In 2003 a strategic anti-corruption program was worked out, following which a council was founded in charge of fighting corruption, and also a department in charge of corruption issues was founded within the general public prosecutor’s office. Furthermore, we have joined a number of international organizations, conventions and agreements such as the UN convention on fighting organized crime, the group of countries fighting corruption, etc. However, the most important thing is considered to be the anti-corruption strategy, upon the adoption of which the initiators were praising that document so much that it seemed we would become a country like Sweden in a couple of years. However, time shows that it is just a deed of kind wishes, which contains beautiful words copied out from other documents. As for the “Anti-corruption strategy”, they may take out the word “anti” as corruption has not been cut down since 2003, but grown. In case the corruption index concerning Armenia published by “Transparency International” organization was 3.1 in 2004, it was 2.9 in 2006. To note, the lower this index is, the more the given country is corrupt.
While we are saying with irony that we are more democratic than our neighbors, they are developing in stabile conditions (see the chart). No, this comparison is not an attempt to rouse envy. This fact just shows the reasons why only the Russians are investing in the Armenian economy (who are almost in the same conditions as us) and why when covering news about Armenia the international press almost always is referring to corruption-related issues too.
There is no doubt that there has been stagnation in fighting against corruption during the recent 3-4 years. Almost all international organizations have stressed this fact. “The corruption existing in all state levels continues to hinder the political and economic development of Armenia”, writes one of the recent statements of “Freedom House”. We can continue with the list of such statements, but there is no need for that since people see everything and know what is happening. Besides that, we don’t want to give place to “wrong translations”.
It turns out that the authorities are strongly working to fight out corruption, but indeed it is flourishing. The advisers from overseas are much surprised to see that we are taking steps based on their advises, adopting laws, founding institutions, but there is not positive effect. In fact, there is no reason to be surprised that all the steps offered for fighting corruption such as the independent judicial system, independent media, accountable government, active civic sector, etc. stay on the paper and don’t help at all. If these things existed, it would mean we are living in a democratic country. Thus, for being democratic it is necessary to, at least once, organize democratic elections. This is the reason why most of the citizens surveyed by TI answered to the question how we can fight out corruption pointing at an issue, which is not given that much importance in works concerning corruption. This important factor is organizing free and fair elections. This means, that people understand that there is no sense to discuss fighting corruption until they have legal and trustable authorities elected by the public vote. Notwithstanding, the first person that is “de jure” responsible for organizing free and fair elections does not care and does not want to answer to the question why he has bought a new car in case his old car was almost new and was used for two years only. They are occupied in more serious issues, especially on specific days and after 20:00…
Generally, definitely there is no need to worry about the growth of corruption much. One failure along with numerous achievements does not matter much.