May 30, 2006, "Congress" Hotel
Presentation

Project Summary

According to The Evaluation Report on Armenia published by GRECO, the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption on March 2006 corruption remains a major problem in Armenia despite the adoption of a number of anti-corruption measures. The report describes two different dimensions of corruption in Armenia: high level corruption through abuse of political or public authority; and administrative corruption typically practiced by middle and lower-level public officials in their dealings with members of the public.
Today, the private sector realizes the risks of corruption, which distorts fair competition and hampers development of a free market. Though corruption damages all types of business companies, yet it mostly affects the small and medium firms. The publication includes the analysis, conclusions and recommendations based on the results of SME sector survey conducted by the Foundation for Small and Medium Businesses (FSMB) within the framework of the project “Promoting Islands of Integrity: Measuring and Encouraging the Ability of Armenian SMEs to Resist Corruption”. Publication and dissemination of the project findings and recommendations is one of the first steps to address corruption problems related to the SME sector in Armenia. The publication considers the manifestations of administrative corruption in the sphere of small and medium entrepreneurship.