Press Review 07/22/2016

The official view of the history of Azerbaijan’s press, the problem of inflation and devaluation, "dead souls" in government agencies and misappropriation of public funds are the leading topics of today's press.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan has published an article on the Press Day. The author makes a historical review without mentioning the names of the founders of the independent press of Azerbaijan. But the author argues that Heydar Aliyev as early as 1970-1980s prevented the ideological attacks on the press. It was at that time the journalism faculty of the Baku State University was founded, and today's journalists are mostly graduates of the Soviet era.

Azadlig has published an article entitled "How the government squandered 66 billion?" The author wonders how a country with such a potential cannot be in line with the leading countries of the world. This is due to the presence of non-professional, greedy and corrupted people in power. For years, they squander the country's wealth.

 The transfers from the State Oil Fund to the state budget from 2003 to June 30, 2016 amounted to about 66 billion USD. At least 25% of these funds should be left to future generations. However, this was not done because of corruption, monopoly and tyranny.

Novoye Vremya has published an article entitled "Inflation and the creeping devaluation undermine economy." Today, Azerbaijan is faced with another, equally dangerous phenomenon - smooth devaluation. So, in the beginning of January, the dollar was worth 1,510 manat, and today it is more than 1.57.

There is no doubt that the rate of AZN to USD and EUR will continue to weaken, which means inflation. In January-June, consumer goods and tariffs for services rose by 13.5% in the annual comparison. Tariffs for paid services rose by 4.2%.

Echo has published an article entitled "Dead souls in the budgetary organizations." The most primitive scheme for this type of fraud is the inclusion of imagined workers in the wage lists and receiving money for them.

 Typically, these cases occur in organizations that have won a tender, for example, for investment projects. The practice of hiring "ghosts" existed in Soviet times, the author reminds.

In Azerbaijan, two trends can be traced. Some employers conceal the real number of the workforce, who work without a contract, but get money. Others exceed the amount of the actual number of employees. -0-