Azerbaijan's Grain Strategy and the Risk of Financial Misconduct.

The government of Azerbaijan wants to make the country produce food, especially wheat. They aim to increase wheat yields. Experts say that without a clear plan and taking action against financial mismanagement their goals are meaningless.

The Agriculture Minister, Majnun Mammadov said they want to increase the country's wheat productivity from 3 tons to 5 tons per hectare. He told Report News Agency that they are expanding the "Food Wheat Program." Year this program produced 126,000 tons of wheat from 22,000 hectares and they hope to increase this amount every year. Mammadov mentioned that some areas in the program have already achieved 5.7 tons per hectare which is much higher than the national average. To encourage farmers the government has started a five-year subsidy program for those who sell grain to the State Reserves Agency and local flour mills.

However economist Natig Jafarli is skeptical about their plan. He thinks they need to have a method to achieve their goals. Jafarli said that countries like Germany, France and Egypt produce wheat but Azerbaijan's productivity has not improved in years. He believes the Ministry needs to do more than just express their desires; they need to present a plan to reduce the country's dependence on imported grain.

The agricultural debate is happening at a time when there are concerns about misconduct in the country. The Chamber of Accounts (CA) has found financial discrepancies in various state bodies. For example the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads overspent its budget by 176 million manats and the State Customs Committee had 18 million manats in unaccounted construction costs.

Investigations have also found that some contracts had inflated values and data entry was incomplete in ministries. The Anti-Corruption Directorate is currently investigating an 11-million-manat price inflation regarding the construction of the Ganja Sports Palace. However critics say that there are no consequences for high-ranking officials who are involved in these financial misconducts.

Many people are criticizing the lack of prosecution for those involved in financial misconduct. Araz Aliyev, a member of the Third Republic Platform said that the Chamber of Accounts is good at identifying irregularities but it has become like a debt collector for the state rather than a force for justice. Aliyev thinks that the government uses these audits to reclaim stolen funds from officials without actually removing them from power.

This situation has led to accusations of a standard in the Azerbaijani legal system. Some people think that civil society members and independent journalists are treated unfairly and face long-term imprisonment for financial infractions while officials who are responsible for losing millions of public funds often escape with just a private reprimand. Until the gap, between identified corruption and actual punishment is closed experts believe that both agricultural reforms and fiscal transparency will remain out of reach.