Amnesty International report developed in a biased manner-PA

What is the aim of the law, signed by the President on 24 November 2011, that provides for non-cash transactions with clients in trading and catering facilities and payment of taxes, state duties and other fees via pos-terminals?

First and foremost, let me say that the sustainable development concept identified by Preasident Ilham Aliyev provides for extensive use of latest technology and progressive international experience in all fields.

You know that transparency is one of the major principles of socioeconomic and political strategy pursed by the President since transparency is of the main factors preventing negatives instances in mutual relations between citizens and society and elements of corruption.

It is no coincidence that Azerbaijan has good ranking in reports developed by a number of influential international organizations for organizing the state budget which serves as a source of funding for socioeconomic reforms in Azerbaijan and index of transparency in work of the state oil fund and other financial institutions. Some legal acts were adopted to ensure transparency and combat corruption-related violations in an effective way and a number of institutional measures were undertaken this year only.

The amendments to the Law "On protection of rights of consumers" should also be seen as part of steps to fight corruption and ensure transparency. Cash payment of compulsory fees to state bodies hinders efforts to ensure transparency and conduct an effective fight against corruption-related violations and makes it easy to conceal illegal income and evade taxes.

To prevent similar cases, the President decreed earlier this year to pay fines, duties and other kinds of cash to state traffic police, customs service and other state bodies via pos-terminals or in an electronic form.

Electronic payment system has been created over the past years to build modern national payment system in our country. This, in turn, enables to make payments in an electronic way or via plastic cards in a transparent and effective manner. The fact that great majority of people has been provided with plastic cards lately promotes cashless payments.

The President has given certain instructions to the state bodies and the Cabinet of Ministers regarding e-services and e-payments in his decree "On certain measures about state bodies’ providing electronic services." What steps have been taken to fulfill these instructions?

The presidential decree instructs every state body to create e-service section on its official website, post accurate information about this service and provide e-services to population via this section.

All state bodies took practical steps to fulfill the requirements as soon as the decree was signed. The Cabinet of Ministers approved rules of e-services to be provided by the state bodies and a list of e-services in a decree dated 24 November 2011.

You can already see that the state bodies have already e-service section on their official websites and provide information about this kind of service. Any citizen who wishes to start a business can register as a tax payer with the Taxes Ministry via internet, can submit electronic tax declarations and pay taxes online.

This is just one example of how e-services are effective by using advanced technology and avoiding direct contact with citizens and loss of time. One can also cite e-services provided by the State Customs Committee, Communications and IT Ministry, Justice Ministry, Health Ministry and other bodies.

It needs to address certain technical issues to provide some services in an effective way. Electronic services will be provided in all areas as soon as they are solved.

What advantages will the e-government project, e-services and paying duties and other fees in an electronic form or via pos-terminals offer to citizens?

Given that e-service reduces the contact between the state body and a citizen to a minimum, extensive introduction of this service is crucial to a fight against corruption. It is no coincidence that at a Cabinet meeting on socioeconomic outcome of nine months of 2011, President said the transition to e-government aimed to intensify fight against bribery and corruption. These institutional reforms will help every citizen and society in a whole to exercise their rights and contribute to improved welfare and development of entrepreneurship.

I want to touch one more issue in a conclusion. The Amnesty International developed a report on Azerbaijan recently. What are your comments on negative points about corruption in this report?

I believe the report was developed in a biased manner based on views of separate individuals. The issues highlighted there were not studied properly and it does not reflect the remarks of the government regarding the report. You will not come across these remarks even on the website of Amnesty International.

Every organization which seeks to be "objective" should have observed the minimal balance at least. This can be seen only as bias used under the influence of Armenian lobby and meeting political orders of certain hostile circles.

For example, the part 2.1 of the report says that Azerbaijan is overwhelmed by corruption citing the 2010 report of the Transparency International. However, the 2010 Transparency International report indicated that Azerbaijan has made definite accomplishments in combating corruption over the past years.

So, our county improved standing by 15 points in 2009 compared to 2008 for corruption perceptions index. It improved standing by nine steps in 2010 with a positive indicator of 2.4 points.

We expect the indicators for this year to be much higher given integrated anti-corruption measures taken in recent years. The legislation and institutional reforms, consistent measures implemented in 2011 will be reflected in 2012 corruption perceptions index and we hope that there will be much improvements in the next report in case Transparency International conducts unbiased assessment.