Level of transparency in liberated territories leaves much to be desired - expert

Baku/28.04.22/Turan: Today, economist Gubad Ibadoglu presented to Azerbaijani media representatives the results of his analysis of the government's activity in the liberated territories, in the field of construction and restoration of infrastructure, involvement of agricultural land in crop rotation, cleaning of mines, return of internally displaced persons to the places of their permanent residence.

According to the expert, since the end of the Second Karabakh war, much has been done on this track, several billion manats have been allotted for this purpose. The work is underway to build roads and railways, airports, industrial parks, social infrastructure facilities, and the electrification of the region. However, the level of transparency of activities in the liberated territories leaves much to be desired. Informing the public about the decisions made and their implementation meets no requirements of openness and accountability of the government, he stressed.

The expert said that the selection of contractors for most of the construction and renovation works is done without competitive bidding. The mechanism for selecting lessees of agricultural lands enables the Ministry of Agriculture to hand over tens of thousands of hectares of land to companies owned by oligarchs without competition. Urban planning is not in keeping with the law: decisions to merge several settlements are made without taking into account the opinions of the residents, now displaced.

As a whole, to Gubad Ibadoglu's thinking, the process is slow. So far not a single one of the 800,000 or so displaced persons has returned to their homes. -08C-