MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Bishkek said they had arrested four policemen for extorting cash from foreigners by falsely accusing them of rape. Media reports said that a female accomplice would set up dates with foreign men and then accuse them, falsely, of rape.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
APRIL 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Corruption at universities in Kazakhstan is now so endemic that it has become an industry worth $100m a year, media reported quoting the ministry of education. Buying a decent grade in an exam costs about $300. Corruption is still rampant in Kazakhstan despite the government’s attempts to stamp it out.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps highlighting his reformer credentials, Kyrgyzstan’s new PM, Joomart Ortobayev, criticised the the police for being flawed and corrupt, media reported. Mr Ortobayev said the police were not doing enough to stop the illegal trade in coal. Foreign investors have often complained about police corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh courts badly need to root out corruption, Kazakhstan’s Secretary of State Adilbek Dzhaksybekov said. His comments are a rare admission from a Kazakh government official that more needs to be done to reform corruption institutions.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A bribery investigation at Swedish- Finnish telecoms company TeliaSonera appeared to widen from Uzbekistan, its initial focus, to other companies it owns in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after it said some other business deals may have been illegal. TeliaSonera owns Kcell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile provider.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police arrested Valery Shevelyov, a director at Kazakh nuclear agency Kazatomprom, and his deputy, Serik Abdrazakov, for corruption. In 2009, Kazakhstan jailed Mukhtar Dzhakishev, then head of Kazatomprom and an opposition figurehead, for 14 years for corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was only ever a matter of time.
Georgia’s government, a coalition called Georgian Dream that first won the 2012 parliamentary election and then the 2013 presidential election, has been going after former government ministers.
That’s the line taken by member of former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s government although the current government has said it is simply following its obligation to investigate alleged crimes.
Former ministers have been tried, and some found guilty, of corruption in what many observers have said is a witch hunt by rivals.
Now Georgia’s prosecution service has called up Mr Saakashvili for question on various cases ranging from the poisoning of a former PM to alleged government misspending and presidential pardons for convicted murderers.
The intent appears clear — to prove that Mr Saakashvili was corrupt and involved in various crimes. Last month his close ally, former PM Vano Merabishvili, was convicted of corruption and abuse of power and sentenced to five years in prison.
Mr Saakashvili has until March 27 to present himself at the prosecutor’s office in Tbilisi for questioning. He is currently in Brussels and has said that he has no intention of attending the hearing.
The United States which has been a long-term ally of Mr Saakashvili has said that it is concerned about the summons. As the United States is also a key ally of Georgia, this makes it harder for the government to pressure Mr Saakashvili into returning to Tbilisi to face awkward questions.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swiss investigators said they had started investigating Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, for money laundering. They had previously been investigating four people linked to Ms Karimova. Ms Karimova is reportedly currently under house arrest in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is fast becoming a pariah state for businesses.
The US authorities opened corruption investigations into business conducted by Russia’s Vimpelom and Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera in Uzbekistan, shortly after Swiss authorities announced they were looking into money laundering allegations against Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Isam Karimov.
It’s not a pretty picture. Vimpelcom and TeliaSonera also have registered offices in the Netherlands, where the authorities have also launched investigations.
The trigger for these problems was a $330m deal that TeliaSonera struck with Gibraltar-registered Takilant to buy a 3G licence in 2007. Takilant was officially owned by Gayane Avakyan, an associate of Ms Karimova.
A Swedish investigation has been looking into whether this payment was actually a bribe to the Karimov family. Mr Karimov and his family have run Uzbekistan as their personal fiefdom since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They may also have had personal stakes in Uzbekistan’s big businesses.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s parliament voted in a new anticorruption law, although in reality it is little more than window dressing.
The law basically states that civil servants are restricted from private business and opening foreign bank accounts. The thinking is, it seems, that government officials are prone to corruption temptations. Perhaps by banning officials from private business, the government hopes to look pro-active in defeating corruption.
It has a long way to go. Corruption is rife in Turkmenistan, as the US-based Heritage Foundation noted in its global report on economies in 2014.
“Corruption is widespread, with public officials often forced to bribe their way into their positions,” the Heritage Foundation wrote on Turkmenistan.
Out of the 178 countries it ranked, the Heritage Foundation placed Turkmenistan at the bottom for both “property rights” and “freedom from corruption”.
Passing legislation is one thing but acting on it is another.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
