Transparency International, non-governmental international organization fighting corruption, summed up the results of the past year in recently compiled and published ”Corruption Perception Index 2012”. This time the annual rating of the world’s states on the level of corruption included more than 170 states and was calculated on a 100-point scale. The higher the score, the less corrupt the state.
The last rating was simultaneously led by 3 countries- Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. They are recognized the most free from corruption. Somalia, as before, closes the list.
Azerbaijan, as usual, is ranked in the second hundred. Having scored 27 points, it is located on the 139th line. This year it coincided that neighboring states are in a row: along with Azerbaijan with the same number of points are lined up Iran and Russia. Here is Kazakhstan, as well. Armenia and Georgia look better on their background. Georgia is the 51st and Armenia 105th one. Turkey, another neighboring country, is the 54th one.
If compared with the output of the previous years rating, Azerbaijan has not progressed at all. Corruption remained on the same level as it was. Only within the period from 2001 to 2004 Azerbaijan was consistently ranked among 10 most corrupt countries. Now it is included in the list of 25 most corrupt states, but the the level of corruption did not change, just in the first rankings many countries have not been taken into account. In this regard, Azerbaijan strongly stands out on the background of Georgia and Armenia. These ones each year are approaching more and more pleasant results in the rating. For example, in 2003 Georgia along with Azerbaijan was among 10 most corrupt states, but today it is among 55 least corrupt states. Armenia in just a year (2011-2012) rose from the 123rd place to the 105th one. Azerbaijan was and has remained at the 130th level, sometimes dropping below 140 countries.
Moreover, the facts which have become known due to the media, show that in the system of the state administration in Azerbaijan corruption has become commonplace. One should not be surprised at the fact that country’s population has got accustomed to such a way of life and does not react to any news from the life of the oligarch-ministers. The active part of the country’s population left the country for CIS countries in search of a loaf of bread. The rest organizes their lives by serving the oligarchs from the ruling clan. They must make a living…
To say that in Azerbaijan the authorities do not give themselves an account about their image, reputation in the eyes of others will probably be wrong. They even forked out for the creation of the ”Fund of struggle against corruption in Azerbaijan”, on the website of which visitors are told in detail about examples of corruption in various countries. And about Azerbaijan there are just Ilham Aliyev’s declarative statements like this one: ”Our ruthless struggle against corruption will continue”. Though the Fund is non-governmental, however the reader becomes absolutely confident that corruption blooms somewhere in the distance. And we just have a lifestyle.
It is surprising that the civilized world is condensing to the attempts at exporting corruption which the ruling class is taking. It can be perceived as a statement of fact when Western media writes about villas owned by Aliyev in different parts of the world. In 2009, in an article on Dubai purchases of the Aliyev family The Washington Post (WP) stated: ”The Aliyev clan provided the country with economic growth, but turned the republic into a country of thriving corruption”. Everyone knows that the success of Azerbaijani economy is due to the conjuncture of the prices for oil and gas. But along with oil, corruption is flowing through the pipes. Azerbaijan stimulates corruption in those countries through which it supplies energy resources to consumers. A striking example of this is the situation with Georgia. The state oil and gas company SOCAR, by selling gas to its subsidiary SOCAR Energy Georgia for $143 to commercial organizations and $ 167 to the population, then on the spot resold it at a price of $300 to the population and slighly less to the commercial and governmental entities. Under the same scheme, petrol was sold. After the defeat of Saakashvili’s supporters in the parliamentary elections, SOCAR Energy Georgia immediately announced a decrease in petrol prices, which proves the patronage of the previous authorities of this scheme. It is the same with other customers, as well. Gabil Rzayev, head of the Association of Truth and Justice, the headquarters of which is located in Basel, Switzerland, testifies: ”SOCAR annually sells millions of tons of oil products to its companies in Switzerland at cheap prices. Then in offshore areas these petroleum products are sold to companies controlled by SOCAR. These offshore companies sell the petroleum products on the world market at a higher price. The profits earned due to this difference in prices flow into the pockets of the people leading the Azerbaijani regime”.
The same schemes work in other spheres. Do not get surprised if tomorrow it becomes known that in Azerbaijan massive purchases of weapons, food, construction materials, oilfield equipment and so on are carried out through offshore companies. Information about state purchases is like state secrets. Therefore, loud statements about a billion purchases of arms for the army or a military budget that exceeds the Armenian budget, do not scare Armenians too much. They imagine themselves well how much percent of this budget is to go to kickbacks.
The same concerns the Ministery of Health. In Azerbaijan they remember well how much money and gold was confiscated when the former Minister Ali Insanov was arrested. But the reason for disgrace was not corruption, but the accusation of ”the preparation of forcible seizure and retention of power, the preparation of mass riots”. The ex-minister continues to sit out his term, and with the new minister the practice of withdrawing the health care system from the state’s custody to private hands has flourished. Private clinics are led by the people who are closely connected with the ruling clan.
Identical schemes work in customs. Through customs, the production is delivered, while the cash amout is paid in cash, and the rest is presented in the form of official fees. In fact, in this way, the entire business becomes hostage to the system. For the import and export of the necessary amount of goods, one has to turn to certain firms that are under the patraonage of business officials.
British organization ”Tax Justice Network” in its report ”The Price of Offshore Revisited”, prepared on the basis of the data taken from the IMF, WB, local governments and other sources, reports about the transfer of $ 48 billion from Azerbaijan to offshore zones on the islands of Latin America, Oceania and Europe. “Transfer of $ 48 billion from Azerbaijan into offshore zones is not possible without the control of supreme political authorities of the country,” said in an interview to Objective TV the Doctor of Economic Sciences, chairman of the Center for Economic Research Gubad Ibadoglu. In his opinion, this is not the full financial data derived from Azerbaijan in 1994-2010, respectively. The information does not reflect data on the banks of Muslim countries, through which the money of local officials passes. The studied assets do not include such items as real estate abroad, gold, stocks, etc. In addition, the preamble of the study noted that questionable transfers were not mentioned. With this in mind, the amount of money taken out is one and a half times more than this.
In his article for The Mail on Sunday, Will Stuart writes: ”Nobody knows how much of Azerbaijan’s astonishing oil wealth flows to the bank accounts of 50-year-old President Ilham Aliyev, his favorites and hangers-on. However, we can say for sure, their wealth is even difficult to imagine. The article itself appeared under the heading ”Dirty rich people: Great Britain’s favourite dictatorship has so much oil that its heirs bathe in it”.
The article states that none of the British officials who paid a visit to Azerbaijan, critized official Baku. ”Probably, they are right’, though Aliyev is a tyrant, but he is an anglomaniac-tyrant,” writes The Mail on Sunday, ”
Perhaps, this is the reason for rejection of Strasser’s report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Along with the representatives from Turkey and Russia, many British, French MPs voted against the report. It was not in vain that in May last year the European non-commercial organization European Stability Initiative made a report called ”Caviar Diplomacy”, in which Azerbaijani authorities were accused of bribing the loyalty of the members of the Council of Europe with expensive gifts and sturgeon caviar.
To clarify the reason for loyalty of the ”civilized West” to the corrupt tricks of the dictatorial regime, again we can turn to ‘The Mail on Sunday”. Will Stuart notes in his article that it is quite possible that the energy security of future generations of Europe lurks in this small country, and Aliyev tries to assure that he still has a century gas reserves. Besides, the supply routes for Europe by hydrocarbons from Azerbaijan are inaccessible to the ”Russian bear” – Gazprom, Saudi Arabia with its despotism of fundamentalists and Iran. Will Stuart writes: ”Western leaders are secretly grateful to the man who has brought stability to the oil and gas prospects”.
”Despite all this absurdity, Azerbaijan is a Muslim country with a western face…Go 200 kilometres to the south and you will meet the Iranian theocracy with its nuclear ambitions”, the article states.