In the first half of 2019, under the supervision or control of the prosecutor's office of Syunik region in the Syunik regional investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia and subordinate structures, 18 corruption-related criminal cases were initiated  during the same period.

 

It is worth noting that 11 or 61 percent of them were initiated on the basis of reports from individuals or legal entities, 7 or 39 percent of the inquiry body, the investigator, the prosecutor, the court and the judge, as a result of the exercise of their powers. These data indicate that the population of Syunik region continues to actively deal with the detection of corruption crimes. From the discovered corruption-related  cases , 11 were registered in the areas of local government and state administration, 4 in the field of social security and 1 in the field of education, forest protection and water use. During the same period, in the proceedings of the criminal prosecution bodies, 38 corruption-related criminal cases  were considered instead of 31, as compared with the same period of the last year.

 

21 persons were brought to justice  in these 38 cases, including the heads of a number of communities in  Syunik region / Verishen, Оkhtar, Nerqin Khndzoresk, Meghri /, director of the organization "Community facilities of  Kapan", employee of VTB-Armenia Bank CJSC,  social assistance specialists of Sisian, Meghri and Goris, an employee of JSC "Haypost" and so on.

 

More tangible results were achieved in relation to ensuring criminal liability and rendering guilty verdicts. In particular, if in the first half of last year, 5 cases of corruption were filed against 6 people, in 2019 during the same period 7 criminal cases were initiated (40% more) against 11 people (83.3 % more). Moreover, if in 2018 during the same period 3 cases of this kind were examined by the court and ended with an indictment against  10 people,  then in the first six months of this year, 9 cases (three times more) against 13 people (30% more).

 

In the first half of 2019, the damage caused to the State in the materials and corruption-related  criminal cases has been amounted to 7.8 million drams, from which 2.411.250 drams have already been restored. It should be noted that the damage caused to the State in criminal cases initiated in the first half of 2018 has been amounted to 6.8 million drams, of which 1.8 million drams were recovered during this period.

 

In order to eliminate the circumstances contributing to the commission of corruption-related crime the prosecutor of the Syunik region submitted 2 petitions to the governor of Syunik.

 

Issues raised in one of the petitions were discussed with the participation of the relevant structural units of  Syunik region administration and the regional social assistance department,  their attention was drawn to violations and unacceptable behavior of workers in relations with citizens, and a strict demand was made to prevent  such behavior, and consideration of another petition is  in the process.