ASSA-Irada,
10, December 2007

The Azerbaijani government and the Council of Europe have signed an agreement on launching a new technical cooperation project in the country entitled "Support to the Anti-corruption Strategy of Azerbaijan".

The two-year project is part of the CE cooperation program in the South Caucasus, the organization said. It will help to implement the recommendations made to Azerbaijan by the Council's group of states against corruption (GRECO). The initiative is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The launching event took place in Baku on Monday.

The $800,000 project will focus on four main areas: strengthening the strategic anti-corruption framework in line with GRECO recommendations and good practices; elaborating and improving primary and secondary legislation concerning the prevention of corruption; establishment of a network and system to prevent the use of the financial system for money laundering and terrorism financing purposes; and strengthening capacity for corruption prevention through empirical studies and by institutionalizing the application of ethics codes and controlling conflicts of interest in the public sector.

"Corruption is one of the key problems facing Azerbaijani authorities," said the President's Office Chief-of-Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev, who chairs the State Commission on Fighting Corruption.

He said the government was taking major steps jointly with international groups to combat such instances.

"In the past five years practical measures have been carried out in this area - important decisions passed, relevant changes made to the country's legislation and monitoring conducted to reveal facts relating to corruption.

"The government is ready to further cooperate with international organizations, and the memorandum on cooperation with the Council of Europe we signed today will open up new opportunities," the chief-of-staff said.

Mehdiyev reminded that the national strategy for 2007-2011 on increasing transparency and stamping out graft is being implemented.