September 29, 2010 - 14:28 AMT
Armenian, Russian Control Chambers to jointly tackle corruption

Chairman of the RA Control Chamber Ishkhan Zakaryan said that the Armenian and Russian Control Chambers will sign a program of joint inspections within the framework of the 10th session of heads of the Superior Financial Control Bodies of the CIS member-states.

“Next year, we will conduct financial inspections at VTB Bank (Armenia), a subsidiary of Russian VTB OJSC, ArmRosgazprom CJSC (established by the Armenian Ministry of Energy and Russian Gasprom OJSC). Besides, we will consider the issues of Russian military bases’ property management,” Zakaryan told journalists.

For his part, Chairman of the Russian Control Chamber Sergey Stepashin noted: “As a result of long-term and fruitful cooperation with the Armenian colleagues, we decided to sign a plan of joint activities until 2012, envisaging a range of joint control measures. They refer to a complex of economic agreements, which were recently signed by the Armenian and Russian Presidents. They also refer to maintenance and provision of the Russian military base, hydro energy issues and operation of Unified Energy System of Russia.”

Stepashin added that if new issues emerge, Russia is ready to discuss them with Armenia

Commenting on discussion of programs on tackling corruption, he said: “There is nothing to discuss. Corrupted people should be caught and imprisoned. There are such people in both Russia and Armenia.”