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Corruption in Azerbaijan is widely perceived to be endemic and deeply institutionalised – permeating all spheres of public life, with entrenched political patronage networks and widespread conflicts of interest closely connected to the political elite, according to a Transparency International report “The State Of Corruption: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, 2015.”

The report reads that according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, Azerbaijan ranks 126 out of the 174 countries assessed, with a score of 29 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). 58 per cent of people in Azerbaijan believe that corruption in the public sector is a problem or a serious problem, with health services and the judiciary perceived to be the sectors most affected by corruption.

Transparency International points that the Azerbaijan National Integrity System is characterised by a dominant executive branch and strong law enforcement agencies, which are largely unaccountable due to weak oversight. The ability of other institutions, such as the judiciary, the legislature, the chamber of accounts and the ombudsman, to hold the executive to account is seriously limited.

The dominance of the executive over the judiciary is also apparent through the significant control it exercises over the judicial budget. The government arrested and, in some cases, imprisoned dozens of political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and lawyers on allegedly fake charges, ranging from misappropriation of funds to treason. That said, for the first time ever in Azerbaijan, in 2013 a former member of parliament was sentenced to three years imprisonment following the so-called Gulargate scandal, in which the member of parliament in question was found to have offered a seat in parliament in exchange for money.

Other high-ranking officials implicated in the scandal have escaped further action, Transparency International says.

The experts of the organization point that civil society and the media are rated among the weakest links in Azerbaijan’s National Integrity System. In particular, there are concerns about recent legal reforms that grant the government tighter control over civil society, including expanded powers to dissolve organisations for minor offences, legal obligations to register grant agreements with the Ministry of Justice, as well as numerous reports of excessive interference by the state in CSO activities.

Transparency International rates the business sector as the weakest institution in the Azerbaijan National Integrity System. Small businesses continue to suffer substantially from the high cost of licences and permits, the dominance of monopolies, limited access to finance, lack of skilled labour, cumbersome foreign trade and customs regulations, high tax rates, and cases of corruption.

According to the report, Armenia ranks 94 out of the 174 countries assessed by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, with a score of 37 going far ahead of Azerbaijan.

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