Sakunts: By detecting corruption cases from time to time, the authorities are trying to show the international community that they are working
15:00, March 20, 2018 | News, Other news
No fight is lead against systemic corruption in Armenia, and no high-ranking official is punished. This observation was made by human rights defender Artur Sakunts in his interview with MediaLab, while touching upon the announcement about the detection of yet another corruption offense in the field of defense.
According to Sakunts, such cases of corruption offense detection should not be looked upon as a fight against corruption but should instead be viewed as poorly protected corruption cases or corruption cases that are vulnerable in terms of protection. There will be an authentic fight against corruption only if, as stated by the human right defender, the authorities internally decide to punish the highest-ranking corrupters.
“I find the detection of such corruption cases to be a selective fight against corruption, where cases that are more vulnerable in terms of protection are detected. That is to say, in Armenia corruption is protected by the authorities,” said Artur Sakunts to MediaLab.
We should recall that on March 17 the RA General Prosecutor’s Office announced that the Deputy Head of the MoD Department was detained on charges of taking bribes from 2008 to 2013 in the field of the MoD competitions on the provision of material resources.
This refers to a bribe in the amount of 29 million 220 thousand AMD, which the Deputy Head of the Department received from the founding director of “A. A.” LLC, the company that provided material resources to the MoD.
The other day, the Investigative Committee released a statement, according to which from 2015 to 2017 nearly 45 million AMD was seized from the army. In connection with this case, according to the Investigative Committee, two persons were arrested – the deputy commander and the storekeeper.
As stated by Artur Sakunts, this cannot be considered as an indicator that there are some changes in the fight against corruption in the country. The human rights defender recalled that during the April War we witnessed different manifestations of corruption. In particular, it was disclosed that the offspring of low-income families were on combat duty; facts concerning the food in the army, the ammunition, the overall security and the provision of means of protection were brought to light. However, no considerable punishments were imposed. Even outside the army, according to Sakunts, we repeatedly witness cases containing risks of corruption; yet, they are not pursued.
“These cases refer to such current manifestations of corruption in regard to which the authorities should have already initiated numerous criminal cases if they had poltical will. A number of high-ranking officers who have managed the field of defense for long years and many other officials who, for instance, have controlled the field of the exploitation of mines and licensing activities, should be punished. And the majority of them should have already been imprisoned,” said he.
According to Sakunts, political corruption is also flourishing in Armenia. The most recent example is that newly elected President Armen Sargsyan has still not submitted a substantiated document to prove that he has only been a citizen of the RA in the last six years. And that is political corruption and unlawfulness.
It is noteworthy that these revelations of corruption follow the statements by US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills and EU Ambassador to Armenia Piotr Świtalski. Through the statements the latter in fact accuse the authorities of Armenia of not undertaking effective anti-corruption efforts. The ambassadors warn the Armenian authorities that the funding of the anti-corruption projects will continue only in the case of tangible results.
It should be noted that in the recent years Armenia has received massive financial support from the US and the European Union for the fight against corruption.
In the period from 2015 to 2018 the RA Government has received 806 thousand USD from the US for the implementation of an anti-corruption strategy. And the European Union has allocated about €15 million to the RA Government in order to lead an effective fight against corruption. In February 2017 EU Ambassador to Armenia Piotr Świtalski said, “We should do something against corruption. We have allocated €15 million. We will allocate more, but work should be done.”
Human rights defender Artur Sakunts recalled that from time to time a range of such cases are detected, through which the authorities are trying to show the international community that they are working. Not very long ago such a campaign was launched against judges. Some were arrested. Yet, as stated by him, this process ended as though manifestations of corruption had ceased in the judiciary. Meanwhile, right now before everyone’s eyes scandalous trials are being conducted in regard to different cases.
“How can I consider that a fight against corruption is really being lead in the country if the General Prosecutor hosts USSR General Prosecutor Osipyan and awards him with a medal, commending the importance of his role in the establishment of the prosecution system. And this is done while serious questions have been raised in regard to Osipyan himself and the members of his family receiving and handling money of criminal origin. However, no investigation is being conducted in connection with this by today’s Prosecutor’s Office,” mentioned the human rights defender.
Artur Sakunts noted that corruption is widely spread in the political system of Armenia. For instance, massive electoral bribes were distributed at last year’s parliamentary elections. However, despite the widespread violations of the electoral rights of Armenian citizens, no criminal case was initiated against officials or MP candidates. Moreover, the official involved in the offshore scandal became a deputy, and another person was brought to liability instead of former Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.