After the opening Asan Xidmet, economic crime has doubled

The mention of Asan Xidmet as a symbol of the success of the struggle of the Azerbaijani government against corruption became the norm in the speeches of the president and his team. The government demonstrates the Asan Xidmet and the subsidiaries of this civil service to the guests; and recently at the initiative of Azerbaijan to the UN adopted the resolution "Promotion of human rights and the goals of sustainable development through transparent, responsible and effective provision of public services" (Geneva, 37th session of the Human Rights Council UN.)

The basis of the resolution was the idea of ​​using the concept of ASAN Xidmet, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan reported. The resolution adopted underlined that ASAN Xidmet technology contributes to the protection of human rights and the prevention of corruption. That is, since the beginning of the functioning of this service, corruption in Azerbaijan has significantly decreased. If this is true, then success in the fight against corruption should be reflected in the annual reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan.

On the website of the Prosecutor General's Office there is a section on statistics on combating corruption, but there is no information in it. In his speech the head of the main anti-corruption department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Kamran Aliyev, dated June 6, 2017, speaks of a successful fight against corruption, but there are no numerical indicators of this success.

http://www.yap.org.az/az/view/news/20759/kamran-eliyev-azerbaycanda-korrupsiyaya-qarshi-mubarize-dovlet-seviyyesinde-aparilir.

In 2015 K.Aliyev reported about 5105 appeals from citizens for the first six months, but did not provide comparative data for previous years.

In the article of the governmental "Khalg Gazeti" (09.06.2017) entitled "Serious struggle against corruption is conducted in Azerbaijan", the successful experience of Asan Xidmet is mentioned, but there is no evidence of the success of the struggle.

http://xalqqazeti.com/az/news/economy/86690

The State Agency for Servicing Citizens and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Asan Xidmet Center) was created by the president"s Decree No. 685 on July 13, 2012. On September 5, the structure of the new agency was approved. Turan compared statistical reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 2011-2012, when there was not any Asan Xidmet, and the last years - 2016 and 2017. They were surprised to note that listing the figures for certain types of crimes (kidnapping, drug trafficking, murders, crimes against property and etc.) and even reporting on the dynamics of increase (decrease) in indicators in comparison with the previous year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not enter a separate line about the indicators of corruption. Only in 2017 it was reported that corruption decreased by 17.4% (41 cases), and there are no absolute indicators for this and previous years in the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Probably, to hide the growth in the number of confirmed cases of corruption, these data are not shown, and the statistics on corruption crimes are included in the line "economic crimes," Turan decided, and compared statistics on economic crimes. It turned out that in 2011 and 2012, 7722 (+1580, 25.7%) and 6996 (-726, -9.4%) of "economic criminals" were detained. In 2016 and 2017, when Asan Xidmet blossomed, the data was significantly higher - 12798 (+1439, + 12.7%) and 12824 cases detected.

These data do not indicate that bribes are taken in Asan Xidmet. You can make another assumption - having lost illegal proceeds from the appearance of Asan Xidmet, civil servants have expanded expanding bribery in other areas of citizen service. After advent of Asan Xidmet economic crimes, which include corruption, has almost doubled.

The state does not observe any success in fighting corruption in Azerbaijan, otherwise it would expose the corresponding figures in the official websites and speeches of officials.

At the same time, the annual Corruption Perceptions Indexes in Azerbaijan, conducted by the international organization Transparency International, show a slight improvement in the country's location from 139th in 2012 to 122nd in 2017.

The success of the state fight against corruption in Azerbaijan. But if there are successes in the communal sphere, mostly covered by Asan Xidmet, and they are reflected (along with the new anti-corruption laws adopted) in Transparency International. А успеха в борьбе с собственно коррупцией в Азербайджане государство не наблюдает, в противном случае выставляло бы соответствующие цифры в официальных сайтах и речах чиновников.

Turan agency has repeatedly published analytical materials on the expansion of state corporation in the local executive authorities, including, in particular, the procedure for agreeing private construction on individual land plots. Corruption covered the entire sphere of law enforcement agencies, health care and other spheres of state activity, as well as the construction of residential multi-storey buildings, etc.

As for Asan Xidmet, the really successful impact of similar innovations on the anti-corruption fight was in Georgia. Similar structures - the House of Justice, have been created in this country by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development under the presidency of Saakashvili Vera Kobalia. The experience of her work is so highly appreciated, that in 2016 Kobalia was appointed the chief adviser to the Government of Indonesia on economic reforms. For two years of work she managed to promote the 300 millionth country in the rating of doing business by 40 positions. She has introduced electronic services, and Indonesia began to build their Houses of Justice on the Georgian model.

Turan asked the opinion of the expert in the field of telecommunications of Azerbaijan, the expert of the United Nations (UN) on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Abdul Kagramanzade, first he recalled that the "ICT Project" of 17.02.2003 for 15 years. "During these years, little Estonia presented the world of Skype, and in 2005 carried out its ICT program" Tiger Leap." If the world uses Skype free of charge, then Asan Xidmet services are paid.

Despite the fact that the Azerbaijani concept of "e-government" proposes the provision of a set of services (documents and certificates from enterprises and organizations of the country), without the direct participation of officials, but an entire army of civil servants is working in ASAN!

The use of "information technologies" is not our merit (we do not create them), but the satisfaction of the financial interest of foreign producers oriented to maximize profit from the introduction of their new developments in developing countries like Azerbaijan, A.Kahramanzadeh noted.

Apparently, ASAN, as a product of digital technologies, is not a guarantee for the development of democracy and transparency in the country. Moreover, under the conditions of "authoritarian regimes" the creation of a database on every person can be dangerous for the inviolability of private life and human rights in the country, especially in the processes of elections, referendums and struggle with dissidents in the media," the international expert added.