Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, at today’s government cabinet session, said the country’s three-point drop in the 2022 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index is unacceptable and alarming.

“Recently, we have uncovered many shocking corruption cases in the food safety inspection, in the customs service, in one of the administrative districts of the Yerevan Municipality, in the government, and so on. Our task is to prevent corruption. That is why the Corruption Prevention Commission was created in Armenia," Pashinyan said.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived, according to experts and businesspeople, levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Armenia, with a score of 46/100, ranked 63rd in the 180 countries included in the CPI. The country’s score decreased by three since 2021.

Armenia's score had gradually increased since 2018, when Nikol Pashinyan came to power.

Pashinyan, during a parliamentary Q&A session yesterday, placed some of the blame on the media for highlighting corruption cases involving government officials.

“I think media reports about corrupt transactions involving one or another official also played a role,” Pashinyan said. “I want to propose a procedure so that no such report goes unanswered. If it’s not true, then you should opt for a civil lawsuit and be consistent.”