On February 24, Chairman of the NA Supervising Chamber (SC) Gagik Voskanyan announced that ATMs are distributing poverty benefits (subsidies). This is mentioned in the 2005 report of SC. According to Voskanyan the distribution of subsidies is conducted by the “Arm Post”, where certain laws are being violated and registered. The “Arm Post” occupies a monopolistic position and goes against the law. The enterprise unilaterally directs the market but is not registered in the Committee of Economic Competition. Moreover, very often the “Arm Post” doesn’t hand in the non-paid or left -over amounts to the Government within 3 days (defined by law) and instead the amounts were retrieved in 2-3 months. As a result from 2002-2005 “Arm Post” has not transferred 98 million AMD to the State Budget. According to him, this money was circulated only for “Arm Post”. This means that the enterprise, which has a monopoly, used the money for its own benefits.
Yesterday the Head of the Press and Communications Department Astghik Martirosyan denied this information when speaking to us. According to her the “Arm Post” and the Government have signed an agreement about retrieval. The Ministry of Finances of Economy of RA has not found any violations during its periodic check-ups. “I don’t even know why they mention the violations of 2002-2004 in 2006,” mentioned Martirosyan and added that there were no violations like that during the mentioned period. She also said that the accusations of Voskanyan about monopoly are not true either. “In 2004 a bid on distributing subsidies was announced and no other organization has applied for that bid except for “Arm Post”. The “Arm Post” has to do the distribution. Therefore the announcements that “Arm Post” is a monopolist in this sector and that we are not registered in the Committee on Economic Competition are unsubstantiated,” said Martirosyan and added that the “Arm Post” has not violated anything and wondered what the basis of those accusations are.