"SERGE SARGSYAN IS A CORRUPT OFFICIAL"

A1+
[07:32 pm] 06 November, 2006

Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan uses his administrative and personal means in order to reach his aims. According to Amalya Kostanyan, Armenian representative of "Transparency International", this is political corruption, as according to the definition of the organization, "abuse of the state rank with the aim of personal benefit is corruption".

According to the representative of "Transparency International", the pre-election campaign which has already started non-officially is also political corruption. The data of "Transparency International" claim that the most corrupt field is that of political parties.

The political control over Mass Media, fabrications during the elections, and voting of people who are not registered in the electoral area is also corruption, Amalya Kostanyan announced in the National Press Club.

According to the report of "Transparency International", the Corruption Perceptions Index is 2.9 but our country is among those where corruption is widespread, despite the fact that Armenia has been realizing an anti-corruption strategic program for the last three years. "The investigations carried out in Armenia once in every three years since 1999 show that level corruption is rising", Amalya Kostanyan said.

Nevertheless, the index of Armenia is lower than that of Georgia (2.8), Azerbaijan (2.4) and Turkey (2.8).