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The Transparency International (www.transparency.org) index of corruption reflects the views of local and foreign businesspeople and analysts, and is based on the results of 16 public opinion surveys conducted by 10 independent research centers.

The 2005 Corruption Perception Index employs a 10-point system by which the level 10 represents a condition of absolute absence of corruption.

Armenia scored 2.9, placing 88th overall. (By comparison, Georgia scored 2.3 (130th place), Azerbaijan 2.2 (137th place) and Turkey 3.5 (65th place). The most non-corrupted country is Iceland, 9.7. Finland and New Zealand share second with 9.6. The United Kingdom is 11th at 8.6 and the United States is 17th, with a 7.6 rating.)

While Armenia scored poorly, it has plenty company among corrupt countries. More than two thirds of the 159 countries have positions lower than 5, which indicates an “alarming” situation.

“The corruption situation in Georgia and Azerbaijan is much worse, but this year a more active fight against this phenomenon is noted there compared to Armenia,” said Varuzhan Hoktanyan, expert in public policy at the Armenian branch of Transparency International.

According to statistics, during the first half of last year 198 corruption cases were registered in Armenia, while during the same period of this year the number has grown by 29, to 227.

President of the Anti-Corruption Strategy Implementation Monitoring Commission, RA President Advisor on Corruption Issues Bagrat Yesayan considers this a positive tendency and that while corruption has not increased, more cases have been revealed.

“Corruption is a phenomenon, not a potato to measure it with kilograms whether it has increased or decreased,” says Yesayan. “Corruption is a phenomenon that is impossible to measure like it is impossible to measure love.”

However, President of the Transparency International Armenian office Amalia Kostanyan says the issue is not only about the numbers but the existing situation in the republic.

“We do not need numbers on how many civil servants or business people have been sentenced and imprisoned. It will suffice to show us that there is really political will in Armenia to fight against corruption,” said Kostanyan on a meeting with journalists at the National Press Club on November 7th.

TI calls for more political will in the fight against corruption, as well as making the information on state budget, revenues and spendings more transparent.

Kostanyan says there is still no political will in Armenia for fighting corruption as a result of which even in case names are publicized, she believes, it will appear that those people are low ranked civil servants, while corruption is spread in almost all spheres of life – customs, taxation, healthcare, education, etc.

“Having a system corrupted from the bottom, there is no need to point out separate fields, since there are spheres we just do not get in touch with,” says Kostanyan.

According to Kostanyan those are, for instance, monopolies, and the widespread presence of illegal construction projects.

Executive Director of the TI David Nussbaum says in the survey results that corruption is not a natural disaster:

“It is the cold hearted and purposeful depriving the most unprotected layers of society of their opportunities,” he says.

According to the TI Armenian office, in Armenia the struggle against corruption is mainly realized by means of making legislative amendments.

“They are not implemented, and common citizens remain unaware of all that,” says Kostanyan. “In Hungary the fight did not start until a parliament member was sent to prison. It would be better to adopt fewer laws, for it is all a formality.”