Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Executive Director of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center, Rena Safaraliyeva, Executive Director of Transparency International Azerbaijan Chapter and Erekle Urushadze, Researcher of Transparency International Georgia Chapter were the guests of Radio Liberty's "The Caucasian Crossroads" program and Radio "Ekho Kavkaza" to discuss TI CPI 2010 in the countries of the South Caucasus. They presented how Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were scored by CPI 2010 and motivated the reason for decline or improvement of the scores.

Despite the fact that Georgia's score is the highest and Azerbaijan's - the lowest in the South Caucasus region, Georgia's score was dropped by 0.3 (from 4.1 in 2009 to 3.8 in 2010), Azerbaijan's score was improved by 0.1 (from 2.3 in 2009 to 2.4 in 2010) and Armenia's score declined by 0.1 (from 2.7 in 2009 to 2.6 in 2010).

Varuzhan Hoktanyan addressed the methodology and data sources to calculate the CPI 2010. He also conveyed the key message of Transparency International this year - enforcement of existing laws and rules - rather than having good laws are essential for putting an end to corruption. As for perceived level of corruption in Armenia, its score revealed stagnation process. Dropping of its score by 0.1 cannot be considered as a tendency of corruption level decline, it is rather a statistical error.

The speakers also dwelt on the impact of TI CPI on respective governments and their fight against corruption. Other speakers spoke of the reforms carries out by their countries and the difference between the CPI and another TI survey - Global Corruption Barometer. According to the GCB 2009, 43% of the Armenians surveyed reported having paid a bribe in the previous 12 months. It was concluded that political will was needed for anti-corruption laws to be actually enforced.

Listen to Radio Liberty's "The Caucasian Crossroads" program in Russian for details