The court that bought a service car for 17 percent more than the market price is a problem

Courts are a part of the government that people trust to make sure the law is followed and justice is served in the country. When the court itself does things that are against the law, it makes people wonder if the law is really being applied.

I recently read about an audit that the Chamber of Accounts did at the Nakhchivan Supreme Court. The results of the audit are pretty surprising. It shows that the court did some things that are not right according to the law.

The Chamber of Accounts looked at how the Nakhchivan Supreme Court spent 10.7 million manats from 2023 to 2025. There are some things that do not add up. For example, each department in the Supreme Court should have at least 8 staff members, but some departments had only 3 or 4 staff members.

The money that was saved on salaries was used to give money to the department heads (139.5 thousand manat). Also, 80.6 thousand manat that was meant for judges' medical treatment was used to pay servants instead.

When the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court was on vacation, the court still paid for fuel for his car. They paid too much for fuel — 2.2 thousand manat more than they should have.

The audit also found out that the court did not follow the rules for buying things. They did not put their plans for buying things on the portal on time. When they did put the plans up, they changed them a lot without explaining why.

The court also broke the rules when they bought things for construction and repair. They divided the money into two contracts, which is not allowed. They bought some things without following the proper procedure.

It is also interesting that the court has three cars. They are only supposed to have two. One of the cars, a Toyota Avalon, was bought for 17 percent more than its real price.

The court also did not pay the VAT (14.9 thousand manat) when they bought the car.

All these problems in the court make people wonder what is going on in government institutions.

Some experts think that the reason for these problems is not just that the government is not controlling things enough. They think that the main reason is that there are not independent media and civil society organizations to keep an eye on the government.

When officials know that their wrongdoings will be made public, they are less likely to do things. In some countries, when officials are caught doing something, they resign. This happens because the media and civil society put pressure on them.