Arrests in Kurdamir: Fighting Corruption or Inside Power Showdowns?

Baku / 20.08.20 / Turan: The expert community has different assessments of yesterday's arrest of 5 officials in the Kurdamir region, including the head of the local executive power Jeyhun Jafarov.  Some consider the detention of officials as a manifestation of the fight against corruption, others as a struggle within the power. President of the Constitutional Research Foundation Alimamed Nuriyev noted that the fight against corruption is being conducted in two ways. “First, the conditions for corruption are eliminated, including structural reforms and changes in relevant legislation. Secondly, criminal and administrative prosecution is being carried out,” Nuriyev said.

“If there is a corrupt act and those who committed it, then the circle of participants is established. An investigation is carried out, evidence is collected and the case goes to court. According to Nureyev, there are different anti-corruption methods. If soft methods are used, then the conditions for corruption are eliminated.

The second is the “war” strategy, which provides for harsh methods of punishing participants in corruption. The special operation in Kurdamir belongs to the measures from the second category. It is best to combine these methods and apply preventive methods, in particular, carry out structural and institutional changes, and at the same time punish those responsible for corruption.

As for the effectiveness of the latest steps on the overall situation with the fight against corruption, Nuriyev said that the impact of the measures taken is already noticeable. The heads of six districts, their deputies, and heads of departments were arrested.

After the arrests, the new leaders seem to  use different management style. They began to communicate with the population, study the situation, try to be transparent in procurement and other issues. Collecting money from teachers and doctors is either stopped or limited.

 Recently, there were also arrests of lower-level officials of local executive authorities. But in all cases, the fight against corruption should be comprehensive, and in this area, cooperation of state bodies, civil society and the media is necessary.

However, economist expert Nazim Beidamirli does not consider the arrests of officials to be a fight against corruption. He believes that it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive fight against corruption, and this should not induce officials to take bribes.

“Of course, corruption will flourish when the positions are appointed on the basis of kinship, personal friendship. Public control and free media are needed, and NGOs should not receive grants from the government. Secondly, for many years there has been talk about the introduction of the declaration of income of officials, but this has not yet been done. At the same time, managers should not gather journalists and hold events or give them gifts. Without all these measures, we cannot talk about a serious fight against corruption,” Beidamirli said.

Nazim Baydamirli sees the recent arrest as a manifestation of a power struggle in the government. “Arrests are a power struggle in the government,” he said. “It is enough to look at the autobiographies of the detainees, and it will be clear that they were not appointed heads of the executive branch because of their ability and honesty. These people did not respect the law, because they were appointed for being close to any official. The recent formation of the legislative body also proved that there is no significant progress in governance in Azerbaijan," Beidemirli said.

On August 19, the General Directorate for Combating Corruption under the Prosecutor General conducted a special operation in the Executive Power of the Kurdamir region. According to local media reports, during the special operation, 5 people were detained, including the head of the Kurdamir region executive power Jeyhun Jafarov, his first deputy Tajaddin Novruzov, and the head of the territorial administration department Natig Kerimov.

A source in the Kurdamir region confirmed to Turan the fact that five local officials, headed by J. Jafarov, were detained by prosecutors.  Since December last year, the heads of the Agstafa, Neftchala, Bilasuvar and Imishli regions, as well as the former head of Yevlakh, have been arrested.

In addition, high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the State Border Service were arrested.-06D-