Wikipedia: Corruption in Tajikistan

The English-language Wikipedia article “Corruption in Tajikistan” summarises reporting that corruption is widespread across all spheres of Tajik society. The article states that, according to a 2015 Diplomat article and Freedom House in 2016, corruption pervades every aspect of Tajik culture — from students paying bribes for grades, bribes for the release of prisoners, and “smugglers tipping border guards to look the other way.” According to the article, Transparency International reports that citizens view government bureaucrats and services as the most corrupt — police, customs and tax-collection at the top, followed by college and hospital administrators — and a 2010 survey found bribery most common in dealings with traffic police (53.6%), land purchases (53.3%) and universities (45.4%). The article states that on the 2024 CPI Tajikistan scored 19/100 and ranked 164/180, and on the World Bank’s 2009 Worldwide Governance Indicators scored 9 out of 100, down from 18 in 2007. The article states that political and economic power is concentrated in the family of President Emomali Rahmon (in power since 1992), citing 2010 WikiLeaks cables describing his family as the most corrupt in the country: son Rustam Emomali (member of Dushanbe city council, head of the Football Federation, Customs Service, anti-corruption agency, and from January 2017 Mayor of Dushanbe), daughter Ozoda Emomali (deputy and then first deputy minister of foreign affairs), and son-in-law Jamoliddin Nuraliyev (first deputy finance minister from 2008, National Bank deputy chair from 2015). According to the article, the IMF estimated corrupt officials siphoned about $3.5 billion — more than a third of annual GDP — into offshore accounts, and the state-run Talco aluminium smelter is owned by British Virgin Islands firms used as a slush fund. The article describes the case of Muradali Alimardon, who after making $550 million in illicit loans to family-linked projects was promoted from National Bank chairman to deputy prime minister and took $120 million more from Agroinvestbank. It states as of 2012, about a third of Tajik GDP came from heroin trafficking involving officials, and references the arrests of Hasan Rajabov and Izzattullo Azizov in 2015, plus Zaid Saidov (sentenced to 51 years in 2013) and Muhiddin Kabiri. Sources cited: Transparency International, The Diplomat, Freedom House, UNDP, World Bank, IMF, The Economist, WikiLeaks US cables, OECD, Eurasianet, The Politicon.