The head of the state customs commission, Armen Avetisyan, doesn’t deny the fact that there is corruption among commission members. He would be surprised if he were told that there has never been corruption since, as he said, corruption has always been an inseparable part of the customs services of the world.
He also spoke about a U.S. customs officer, who had been fired for taking a $6,5 million bribe. However, he doesn’t think that the level of corruption is that high for the commission. He was surprised to hear about the report of the World Bank (WB), which stated that the commission is going through reforms at a slow pace and there is a high level of corruption. Armen Avetisyan assures that the customs committee is successfully fulfilling all the requirements set by the WB. Avetisyan also said that there was also a survey attached to the report and based on that survey, only 3% of people asked thought that there was corruption among customs commission officials. During the past 9 months, 121 commission officials have been fired According to A. Avetisyan, among the mentioned customs officials there have been also officials that were fired for being corrupted.
A. Avetisyan does not agree with NA deputy Khachatour Sukiasian, who says that Gagik Khachatryan, deputy to the chief of the customs commission, owns 11 private businesses and will create obstacles for his competitors in the market no matter what.
“I have been working as head of the Armenian state customs commission since 2001 and as far as I know, Sukiasyan’s businesses have been flourishing ever since,” said A. Avetisyan, “I think that some of his employees had problems with their jobs and complained to the customs bodies so that they can work it out”.
As for the private businesses belonging to G. Khachatryan, Avetisyan said that the only thing he knew was the fact that “Galaxy” supermarket belonged to G. Khachatryan based on what he had read in the papers. “It does not even belong to him, it belongs to his relatives. I think that the fact that someone works at the customs commission does not mean that all his relatives should work in, let’s say, libraries and schools,” said A. Avetisyan.
The head of the customs committee also spoke about the results of their work during the past nine months. He said that the capacity of money income had been cut down; nevertheless, amount of export had grown. As of October 1, 2005, the amount of customs income made up 320 billion AMD, whereas this year that number has gone down to 296 billion. This year Armenia exported more molybdenum, however due to the fact that international prices for molybdenum have gone down, income for customs went down too. This year the amount of imported petroleum is less by 7000 tons, while gas import increased. A. Avetisyan said that he had asked “ArmRusGazard” company and found out that the drivers driving vehicles with gas have spent 46% more gas this year.
As for the growth of the Armenian national currency, Mr. Avetisyan said that as a citizen he liked to see that process, but as a customs officer he didn’t like it since their incomes were cut down due to those changes. The only thing that helps them increase customs incomes is their administrative tools. He assured that the number of businesses in the fields of the import of clothes, food and construction materials for which they don’t pay taxes had been cut down. They have revealed many cases of bribery while working on their project aimed towards the fight against corruption. Whereas last year there were only 43 cases of corruption, this year that number has gone up to 202 (835 million dram), 22 out of which were crimes and the police have instituted legal proceedings.