Lack of budget transparency hinders Azerbaijan’s defense sector accountability

By Jasur Mammadov

12 June 2014

Former major Renat Yusufov, who was a finance officer in the Azerbaijan Armed Forces, now resides in jail number 2 in Baku.

He now charges that he saw many illegal activities in the Ministry of Defense.

Yusufov was arrested in October of 2009 and accused of stealing nearly 1 million manat ($1.275 million).

Three finance chiefs of military units also were arrested. The total amount of stolen money was more than 3 million manat ($3.825 million).

In February of 2007, a Ministry general accountant, Sanan Eyvazov, was appointed the acting chief of the Ministry Finance Department.

One month later, the military prosecutor office began investigating two military units in Shamkir Corps, and discovered that hundred of thousands of manats were stolen.

Sanan Eyvazov decided to burn all of the military unit finance documents. Eyvazov justified his actions by noting there was no law about the keeping and archiving of military finance documents. The only law which prohibited the destroying the finance documents was an outdated decision by a former USSR Minister of Defense.

Elshan Asgerov,

Sanan Eyvazov,

Azad Shafiyev,

Elcin Mehdiyev,

Rafiq Azimov,

Murad Allahverdiyev,

Sadix Sadikov,

Emil Mammadov

Safar Abiyev

“According to the 32 article of Azerbaijan Constitution (“Right to Personal Immunity”) and according to the Law of Azerbaijan “About individual information”, it is outside of our authorities to give individual information related those persons.”

Renat Yusufov claims that the Military Prosecutor’s Office discovered that 100 thousands manats were stolen in Shamkir Corps 2007. Is it true? What information does the Military Prosecutor’s Office possess?

Renat Yusufov wrote that Sanan Eyvazon, the chairman of the ministry’s Finance Department, ordered the Shamkir Corps finance chiefs to burn documents in 2007 to hide financial embezzlement. Is it true?

Yusufov wrote that Elchin Mehdiyev, the acting chief of the Finance and Budget Department, ordered an audit of Shamkir Corps in 2009. If that is true, what was the reason for ordering the audit?

- Staff numbers for units were inflated, and unit commanders would then apply to the Finance Department of Minister of Defense for additional money for salaries, equipment and supplies.

- Unit commanders applied for money to build and restore various military buildings. But in reality there were few building projects.