PM vows relentless anti-corruption combat
Those who steal from the people of Armenia must get caught, charged, embarrassed, morally destroyed and sent to prison, Prime Minister Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting today, addressing the efficient spending of credit and grant resources given to Armenia.
“We are once again discussing a bill on receiving a major grant. During this period we have again received this kind of grants and will again receive in the future. When we add the sums of these grants, basically, we get astronomical amounts. If we ensure the effective spending of these funds, it cannot not have result, the citizen of Armenia cannot not feel concrete changes as a result of spending of these sums. Therefore, the issue is very clear, we must create 100% guarantees that overall the state, credit, grant resources get spent targeted,” Pashinyan said.
In Pashinyan’s words, if nothing is changing in the lives of people it means that someplace, someone is stealing something. “There is simply no other option. Tens of millions of dollars can’t enter complete sectors with nothing changing, everything staying the same and even getting worse. I want to say the following to the representatives of the government: vigilance in combating corruption occurrences should not get weakened not for a single second, not for a single second. Today too bribes are taken in Armenia, and the fact that from time to time we are having fact-based arrests is the most direct proof of this. But if this occurrence exists, it means we shouldn’t have 1-2 arrests in a month in this issue, but 10, 20 and more. I don’t care at all if the given person is an official, an ex-official, a representative of any political party, my family member or a family member of a neighbor. Those stealing from the people of the Republic of Armenia must get caught, prosecuted, embarrassed, morally destroyed and sent to prison. This is the principle. Otherwise, we are taking this money and doing what?” the PM said, adding that everyone must pay special attention on this issue.
“Certainly we are having working discussions regularly and will continue having in this regard. But it is very important that we very clearly realize this message,” he said.
