First large-scale case of bribery uncovered in Armenia since revolution

Three employees of the State Revenue Committee have been arrested in Armenia. All of them are accused of bribery.

Who took how much?

The Special Investigation Service of Armenia believes that the head of the 10th inspection department of small taxpayers S. E., deputy head of the department S.A. and another employee of the same department of the State Revenue Committee V. L. received a bribe of 1 million drams (about 2 thousand dollars).

According to the investigation, three employees of the committee groundlessly accused an Armenian businessmen of violating the tax code and demanded a bribe of 1 million drams from him.

During the transfer of the money, the employees of the State Revenue Committee were detained by the police.

The situation has already been commented on by the chairman of the committee David Ananyan. He stated that there was no systematic manifestation of bribery in his department. He also stressed that these employees had worked on the committee even before he headed the structure.

“When I was the head of the State Revenue Committee, rotational reassignments were carried out. That is, these officials have not been appointed recently. They were simply reassigned by rotation. There are still people who do not realize what the new reality is. In my opinion, however, the majority of these people have accepted the new reality”.

Fighting corruption in Armenia after the revolution

Immediately after the “Velvet Revolution”, the government of Nikol Pashinyan and the leaders of the security forces appointed by him began a tough fight against corruption. A series of corruption cases were uncovered, as a result of which the deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia Manvel Grigoryan was detained.

The now former mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan was also in the center of a corruption scandal.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he was amazed at the scale of corruption among the representatives of the past government.

“This is simply inconceivable, unthinkable. Even my most dramatic words about corruption [in the corruption] are ridiculous compared to the real scale of corruption and robbery that took place in Armenia”.

An end to corruption in Armenia

At a certain stage of the fight against corruption, PM Pashinyan stated that there is no longer large-scale corruption in Armenia.

“However, this does not mean that in Armenia there is not a single official who does not take bribes. It only means that among the high-ranking officials in the Armenian government there are not and will not be corrupt individuals. I guarantee you this personally. ”

The arrest of three employees of the State Revenue Committee is the first large-scale bribery case in government departments since the revolution.