Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated during a panel discussion at the Armenian Democracy Forum in Yerevan that systemic corruption has not existed in Armenia since 2018.
He added that the government’s uncompromising stance on corruption is often unfairly used against it, 1lurer.am reported.
“In Armenia, never before had a sitting minister been indicted, or the acting head of the Urban Development Committee arrested for bribery, not to mention other senior officials. You cannot use the fight against corruption against us; that is dishonest. And you certainly cannot execute people with headlines in the media. How can that be democracy?” he said.
Pashinyan further argued that if systemic corruption still existed, he himself would have received a share from every major corruption case.
“I can’t ask you whether I have a share or not, I know the answer. And I tell you: there is no systemic corruption in Armenia, there hasn’t been, and there won’t be,” he stated.
The prime minister acknowledged, however, that isolated cases of corruption do occur, as in many other countries.
“Corruption, certain manifestations of it, unfortunately, exist in many countries around the world. No matter how much we improve the procurement system, new problems keep arising,” Pashinyan concluded.
