TI states growth of corruption in Armenia

According to the data of the international organization named "Transparency International" (TI), last year Armenia saw growth of corruption level in comparison with the last year; and the country now is ranked the 120th-125th among 180 countries of the world by this level, while in 2008, it was ranked the 109th-114th.

According to Amalia Kostanyan, head of the TI's representative office in Armenian, the high level of corruption in the country stems from the "oligarchic economy, collision of interests and high degree of economy-policy merge." She also named "violations of human rights, falsified elections and social problems" among the major reasons of corruption growth.

Earlier, Ms Kostanyan has stated that the government's struggle against corruption is inefficient. "The main Armenia's problem is the capture of the state by a group of bureaucrats, who have concentrated political and economic interests in their hands," she said.

Amalia Kostanyan saw the absence of "the war on oligarchs" among the major omissions of the new strategy draft of the fight against corruption.

"The greatest minus of the strategy is in inadequate accents in revealing political corruption. It was concluded that MPs who fail to appear at the sittings of the parliament are guilty of the political corruption of Armenia; however, nothing is said about what happens during elections, interlaced political and economic interests, and abusing administrative, financial and information resources," Ms Kostanyan has noted.