Fighting Corruption

[Guest]

"AZG" Armenian Daily # 21, 02/06/2001

Law and right

 

EX-INDUSTRY MINISTER ARRESTED

 

On February 1 the ex-industry minister of Armenia Ashot Safarian was

detained.

 

As reliable sources informed, he is accused of corruption and abuse of

power in energy sector of the country.

[Guest]

Former Armenian Minister Arrested on Fraud Charges

 

YEREVAN, Feb 6, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Armenia's former

industry minister Ashot Safaryan was arrested on Monday and is now

being investigated by Armenia's prosecutor general's office, the

interior ministry's spokesman told AFP.

 

Safaryan, who headed the industry ministry from 1991-1997, is

charged with abusing his authority to the detriment of the former

Soviet republic's energy industry, sources told AFP.

 

Last year, some 25 officials were arrested on charges of fraud and

theft of state property in the energy industry, according to

Armenia's prosecutor general.

 

An investigation launched by Armenian lawmakers revealed that

Armenia lost some 200 million dollars due to various violations and

abuses committed by state officials in 1992-1995.

 

However, the prosecutor general's spokesman refused to confirm

those numbers, adding that the parliamentary commission did not

provide sufficient evidence to support their calculations. (©

2001 Agence France Presse)

[Berj]

Armenia sets up body to draw up strategy to combat corruption

 

Snark

13 March 2001

 

Success in fighting corruption is only possible if the efforts of all parts

of Armenia's state and public structures are consolidated and the

transparency of this process is ensured. The small (geographical - editor)

area involved and the existence of the necessary will are a positive factor

in this connection, Roy Reeve, head of the OSCE office in Yerevan, told a

Snark correspondent.

 

He said that importing Western mechanisms into Armenia to solve such problems

was not important at all. "It is important to find Armenia's own way that

will suit it. We already have the necessary political and technical

assistance from the international community to achieve progress, but we all

understand that this problem is not one that can be solved quickly," the

envoy noted.

 

At the moment the process of defining possibilities for mapping out a

strategy for fighting corruption is under way. A working group consisting of

representatives of international organizations and embassies has been set up

and its coordinator is the OSCE office in Yerevan. The Armenian government is

establishing a similar working group. These two groups have to cooperate in

order to find out how to proceed and where international organizations and

the governments of Armenia and foreign states should be invited to provide

assistance in solving problems. Roy Reeve said that it was also planned that

this working group should include representatives of the media and

non-governmental organizations in order to keep society informed about its

work and enable it to keep track of the process and understand what was going

on.

 

The envoy noted that when those designing the anti-corruption programme got

closely involved in drawing up details of the strategy, they came across

certain difficulties of a bureaucratic nature. Under the existing law, there

are no well-organized mechanisms for transferring and exchanging information

between employees of different ministries or different divisions of one

ministry. This problem will probably now be settled soon, because a

ministerial council has been established at the prime minister's initiative,

which will deal with these issues. However, this set back work on the

programme by three or four months.

 

[passage omitted: Armenia has to adopt a law on corruption; international

organizations should cooperate with the Armenian government in combatting

corruption]