Tag Archives: corruption

Authorities detain Uzbek security officers

JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – More reports have surfaced from Uzbekistan of mass arrests in the Uzbek security services.

Last month, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that police detained roughly 100 people in Ukraine’s customs service on various accounts of corruption now, it appears, 40 members of the security services have been arrested.

Sources told RFE/RL that Colonel Javdat Sharifhojaev, a powerful member of the security services, was among those arrested.

It’s unclear if the latest arrests are linked to the very public row between the daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov and the security services or, instead, if these various detentions are the result of a genuine anti-corruption drive that it appears to have launched.

It could also be a turf war between the various, and powerful, departments of the security services.

Uzmetronom.com, a website linked to the Uzbek authorities, said that the Uzbek authorities had decided to increase penalties against officials for taking bribes.

The Uzbek authorities, apparently, declined to confirm the detention of the various officials.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Construction targeted in Kyrgyzstan

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to dampen souring corruption rates, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev signed into law a bill that will force municipal governments to post in public their plans about various contraction projects. Construction is a major source of corruption in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Kazakh ex-deputy defence minister jailed

JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sentenced Bagdad Maykeev, a former General and Kazakh deputy defence minister, to six years in jail for taking bribes worth about $500,000 in a case that highlights the endemic levels of corruption at the highest levels in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Uzbek customs officials arrested

JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek police have arrested 100 people working at the state customs committee on corruption charges, media reported. The mass arrests are likely to be linked with a grab for power in Uzbekistan rather than a genuine anti- corruption drive.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Demonstrations continue in Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 people demonstrated in front of the Jalal-Abad regional administration headquarters in the town of Aksy in south Kyrgyzstan to demand the resignation of the governor, who they accuse of corruption. Aksy is significant as a demonstration there in 2005 triggered a revolution.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Kazakhstan drops tax on FDI

JUNE 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will waive corporation and land tax for 10 years for foreign investors outside its energy industry, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.The initiative is part of a drive to try and attract investors back to Kazakhstan. Rampant corruption and a flatlining economy have deterred some investors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Azerbaijan not tackling corruption

JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is not doing enough to tackle corruption, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) country chief, Neil McKain, told Reuters. The EBRD is one of Azerbaijan’s biggest foreign investors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)

Police say $1.6b embezzled from Kazakhstan since 2013

JUNE 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s financial police unit has calculated that around 290b tenge (roughly $1.6b) has been embezzled since the beginning of 2013.

Rather ironically the head of the unit, Marat Akhmetzhanov, gave this gloomy assessment of the endemic nature of corruption in Kazakhstan on the eve of a celebration — the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Kazakh financial police.

“In the past year and a half more than 15,000 offences were registered by the Agency,” he said. “Almost 400 cases were opened in the last 18 months against oil theft and smuggling.”

Still, people trying to embezzle cash are being caught and many of these are state officials.

Tursunbek Omurzakov, a member of parliament, said that corruption was rampant.

“Bribery has become the major obstacle to foreign investment,” he said.

Of course none of this is new. The real challenge for Kazakhstan is whether it is going to be able to do anything about it.

As Sarah Lain, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said schemes to embezzle money from businesses and to dodge tax in Kazakhstan had become relatively sophisticated.

“The use of complex networks of offshore companies, proxy owners, ‘fixers’ and offshore bank accounts is common practice amongst the higher echelons of the Kazakh business elite,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)

Kyrgyz court punishes corrupted official

JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan sent Uchkunbek Tashbayev, the former head of the state agency for geology and mineral resources, to prison for five years for corruption and abuse of office, media reported.The sentence of yet another senior official is a reminder of just how endemic corruption is in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)

President flees from Georgian breakaway region

JUNE 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alexander Ankvab, de facto president of Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway regions, resigned days after protesters stormed his residence and forced him to flee.

The protesters had been complaining of rampant corruption and a struggling economy. Mr Ankvab, elected in 2011 on a five year term, had initially been defiant after he fled demonstrators on May 27 but, apparently, after a meeting with his Russian sponsors he quit. There is little doubt where real power over Abkhazia lies.

Abkhazia has now set a presidential election for Aug. 24 meaning three months of uncertainty.

Although Akhazia’s independence is recognised by only a few countries, mainly driven by Russian pressure, Georgia is a bystander in Abkhazian politics.

Georgia’s impotency was summed up by its minister for reconciliation, Paata Zakareishvili. In an interview with Georgian media he pointed out that Russia had sent Vladislav Surkov, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin, to mediate.

“Moscow rules there on the ground,” he said. “They are communicating with each other through Russia.”

As with any power change in Georgia’s two breakaway regions, South Ossetia is the other rebel province, this period of flux is a potentially dangerous one for Georgia as it can trigger instability.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)