Azernews.Az

BAKU – An Azerbaijani official has said the anti-corruption fight ongoing in the country is part of the government`s ``systemic, sustainable and comprehensive measures`` but is not a campaign.

Presidential Administration department head Fuad Alasgarov told reporters on Monday that steps have already been taken in this regard and the Presidential Administration has received numerous letters expressing gratitude for these efforts.

"No country in the world could claim that it has no corruption. Developed countries are employing new methods in their anti-corruption combat, and, as a developed country, we have begun to apply them as well. President Ilham Aliyev’s well-known statement made at a Cabinet of Ministers meeting this January marked an outset of a new stage in fighting corruption [in the country]."

Asked which bodies are cited the most in corruption-related complaints, Alasgarov said that citizens’ claims mostly pertain to areas in which they communicate with government officials the most.

"Drivers complain of traffic police, entrepreneurs complain of taxation bodies and patients of their doctors. We will be doing this work in a systemic fashion. This is the political will of Mr. President."

Alasgarov said "preventive measures" are the priority in anti-corruption efforts.

"The system created in state bodies, transparent procedures should work properly. The president has already issued two major decrees to that end, with one of them pertaining to the launch of "a single window" system in customs bodies, while the other one concerns traffic police."

Ramiz Mehdiyev, the head of the presidential administration, convened an anticorruption commission in late January, after which several ministries held sessions devoted to corruption. Several officials and public servants have been sacked since then.