Responding to the Republic of Armenia Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan’s speech made on October 18, 2016 government session in regards to the assignments and issues discussed at the Fight Against Corruption Council session, Transparency International anti-corruption center’s executive director Varuzhan Hoktanyan in an interview with Radio Liberty stated that, despite the continuous anti-corruption rhetoric adopted by public officials in Armenia, not only has there been no progress in the last decade and half, but rather political power is being used to procure wealth.

“Words do not become work”- said Hoktanyan noting that, there is a system of oligarchy established in Armenia, and that we are dealing with one of the worst forms of corruption, which is referred to as state capture. From 2003 until today, we have seen no change except for small fluctuations in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index. While there have been drastic quantitative and qualitative changes in neighboring Georgia.

The multimillion-dollar donations made to senior public officials which law enforcement agencies should interfere in, are not news. With political will, the Special Investigation Service lets say in the case of unusual donations seen in the declarations of property and income of senior officials, can try to understand where these donations are from. For example, according to the declaration presented by the Ethics Commission of Senior Officials, in the last 5 years the State Revenue Committee Chairman Hovhannes Hovsepyan, who since 2008 has been the head of the Presidential Oversight Service, has received more than $ 3 million in donations and has never made ​​a declaration about his wife’s income and property.

See Radio Liberty reporting here.