100 new "London taxis" after the president's speech on state-owned dependent companies

Baku / 20.08.20 / Turan: On August 6, President Ilham Aliyev criticized the work of state-owned companies that extract oil, gas, distribute water, produce electricity, carry out aviation, railroad transportation, etc. According to him, state-owned companies operate according to the "economic model of socialism" - they receive large infrastructure and capital investments from the state free of charge, but there is no profit in the state budget.

It seemed that after this speech, the waste of state, that is, people's funds on expensive acquisitions for state-owned companies would end. But on August 12, President Aliyev inspected 100 new LEVC TX (London taxis -cabs) imported to Azerbaijan, purchased by the Ministry of Transport for a company belonging to the same ministry, the Baku Taxi Service.

However, the Ministry of Transport, like any other government agency, did not report at what price and on what conditions the cars were purchased. Unofficial information about the cost of cars is circulating on the network - 55 thousand pounds. However, this figure raises doubts, since the recoupment of a car in the Azerbaijani conditions of low prices for taxi services is practically impossible.

As an example, in 2011 a contract was signed for the supply of 1000 London taxis in the amount of $ 27 million, or $ 27,000 apiece. In terms of dollars, the current cabs should cost 72 thousand dollars. That's the price of the cool 2020 Cadillac Escalade Wagon 6.2 V8 AWD AT Luxury. How it looks can be seen here: 894fabf5b5f2ea66be5a4d774af33035.jpg

In order not to guess, the Turan agency sent an information request to the Ministry of Finance. From there he was redirected to the Ministry of Transport. On August 17, the agency sent an electronic and printed request to the Ministry of Transport with a request to answer just one question: Under what financial conditions were taxis imported (price, loan percentage, loan term)?

The agency indicated that the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan On Mass Media requires a prompt and no later than 24 hours response to a journalist's question. According to Article 21.1 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Access to Information”, a request for information is executed as soon as possible, but no later than 7 working days.To answer the question posed by the agency, it would take at most half an hour. Refusal to answer or delay in answering, for the information of the ministry, is a corrupt act.

Article 9.3.8. The Anti-Corruption Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan states that an offense related to corruption is an unjustified refusal to provide individuals or legal entities with information to be provided by law or other regulatory legal acts, a delay in providing this information, or providing incomplete or distorted information.

Considering that this information is of public interest and that the purchase of these machines was covered by the overwhelming number of media outlets, Turan agency publicly asks the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies to respond to letter No. 487 dated August 17, 2020. The agency also asks the ministry not to bring the case to court and not waste precious time on litigation.

We note with regret that it takes months, if not a year, to receive answers to our information requests in court. —0—