Radio Liberty covered the issue of kickbacks. A discourse on public procurement was launched since September 2012 when during a government meeting President Serzh Sargsyan voiced public finance embezzlement, and the so-called kickbacks. Addressing the Prime Minister and Ministers he assigned them to have those guilty punished and the high-ranking corrupt officials detected. “However no official has been punished so far,” said Artak Manukyan, Public Procurement Expert of Transparency International Anticorruption Center.

According to Manukyan the situation has not improved. High-rankers might be detected should there be a specific body or several subjects who deviate from the so-called rules of official game. If there are common rules of the game either all or no one should be punished. Hardly would there be detections of high-rankers in near future. In the opinion of Artak Manukyan the issue was of systemic nature and TIAC research showed that the recent statement by Lyudmila Sargsyan, MP of the Armenian National Congress faction on the alleged rate of 5-10 percent kickbacks being paid in healthcare system was close to reality. There are systemic and deep-rooted issues in the public procurement sector. As for percentage, if turned to average the numbers might be close to reality, concluded the expert.