Plenipotentiary representative of the Armenian government for “ArmenTel” and member of the owners’ council of “ArmenTel” Serge Sargsyan was fired on February 1, 2005. Sargsyan has not been working for “ArmenTel” for a year; however, he still has ties with the telephone company. The thing is that Sargsyan still hasn’t received his total and that is why he has sued the company. “168 Hours” interviewed Serge Sargsyan about that and how “ArmenTel” cheats its workers.
– Two years ago, I was given an award by the shareholders’ council but I still haven’t received the money. I was only able to get the money by the end of May 2005. But the financial award had not been included as part of my salaries at the time and they didn’t recalculate my salaries. I did the math and demanded the interest rates along with the general account I was to receive. They didn’t give it to me. I sued them at the first instance courts of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun quarter-municipalities. The courts decided in my favor. I had demanded 2,000 dollars, including the 1,300 dollars for fees/fines and interest rates. But the appeal court took out the interest rates and only gave me the general account. That, or course, goes against the law. Ten days ago, the Supreme Court reached a verdict, according to which I was to receive nothing because, according to them, I have never worked for “ArmenTel”.
– Weren’t you a registered worker at “ArmenTel”? Didn’t you have any documents?
– Of course. I have all the documents stating the date when I started working for “ArmenTel” and the year I left. When I was appointed the plenipotentiary government representative for “ArmenTel” back in April 2002, I signed a contract with both the government and “ArmenTel”, according to which “ArmenTel” was obligated to pay me my salary, tips, commission salaries, as well as my taxes and social security. My name was not registered in the lists of names at the government or the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Basically, I wasn’t an official worker. Only “ArmenTel” paid me. After all, I was already working for “ArmenTel” as a member of the owners’ council. Now I am going through trials where the law doesn’t pass. Whereas before “ArmenTel” lost all the trials, now it comes out victorious. It seems as though there is someone from above giving orders to “defend “ArmenTel”. Fine, let’s defend “ArmenTel” by violating the laws.
– Many people claim that there is discrimination among “ArmenTel” workers. Were you ever discriminated?
– Unfortunately, the workers are discriminated. OTE’s commissioners are paid 4-5 times more than the local specialists and officials we have here. In 2004, when the relations between the government and “ArmenTel” were not looking too good, I also felt that. They took my office and service car. But of course, I got them back later.
– Perhaps OTE commissions better specialists to “ArmenTel”?
– I agree. Perhaps there really are some professions when it’s worth calling specialists from abroad. But there is another way: announce a contest. Why should the specialists be from OTE when they can win in a contest? Why shouldn’t “ArmenTel” announce a contest? Why should the Armenian professionals get paid 1,500 dollars while the Greeks get 7-8,000? Don’t get the wrong idea; it’s not about Armenians and Greeks. The problem is that the people working at “ArmenTel” are the friends or relatives of the OTE administration. So, it turns out that you don’t have professionals. OTE is 40% state owned. Representatives of Greek political parties are appointed as members of OTE administration. Those members, in turn, commission their friends and relatives to work for “ArmenTel”. They come here and get high salaries. “ArmenTel” also takes care of their expenses. It even pays them for their service. When I was working there, those workers were making trips to Greece 2-3 times a year. Let there be a contest and have them choose the professionals, whether they are from Uzbekistan, Greece or Armenia. But choosing professionals should be done the right way and not just appointing them from OTE. After all, they are earning more than we are.
– Rumor has it that “ArmenTel” has been cheating and hasn’t really made that many investments as it says it has. What do you have to say about that?
– The OTE company has its own way of showing a large amount of investments made for “ArmenTel” or hide the profit gained. Perhaps they are doing things differently, but this is my opinion. OTE’s branches are involved in this. For example, OTE gets the equipment it needs from the Greek “Siemens” brand name company, which is the sister company of the German “Siemens”. OTE is a shareholder of the Greek “Siemens”. The same goes for the “Intracom” company, which also provides OTE with equipment. This company has a “NOKIA” branch and OTE is a shareholder here too. Basically, the OTE gets the equipment from companies of which it is a shareholder. That is why they can come up with huge profits. The equipment and cables were acquired through a formal contest announced in Greece. I think that this is still going on.
– Who is the cheater-“ArmenTel” or OTE?
– The official workers at “ArmenTel”, even the director of the company can’t do anything about all this because that is simply tied to OTE. In order to have OTE send its specialists without a contest and pay enough money, “ArmenTel” and OTE have signed a contract, according to which, the contest is supposed to be held in Greece. It turns out that they are not working for “ArmenTel”, but rather for OTE and are held responsible for their actions by OTE. This is wrong. After all, “ArmenTel” has two shareholders. If something benefits OTE, it must benefit “ArmenTel” too. It’s absurd. There is no Armenian representative in the executive body and everything is done to benefit the Greek side. OTE is not doing its job the right way.
– Doesn’t our government know about this?
– Our government has not paid attention to this, but I have raised this issue a couple of times. They told me that the OTE is held responsible for its actions. But how long can this continue? After all, a lot of money is being wasted. They say that profits are not distributed. When shareholders give a summary of the yearly profits, there has to be some kind of distribution. No matter what, profits must be distributed and checked up on.
– Has the government ever checked up on the profit distribution or investment made in “ArmenTel”?
– The owners’ council discusses and fixes the investment plans, as well as with the shareholders. The expenses are made on the account of the profit, but the OTE company doesn’t make any other investments. The Armenian side also needs a specialist for discussing and analyzing the budget and expenses. I was following up on the plans at the time. That was not enough; I had to also check to see how and why the expenses were made. As for controlling investments, the initiative was taken in 2001 by the Armenian government’s supervising committee. The committee found out that the money for investments was 2.5 times more than the amount presented. The committee only came up with 51.7 dollars in investments when the company had presented a 127 million dollar investment plan. Some documents were sent to the prosecutor’s office and they mainly had to do with the brand names. They had lied on some documents. The prosecutors didn’t really pay much attention to the documents presented by the Greek company. The government had commissioned the Ministry of Justice to start a trial, but the ministry decided to conduct open sessions. But I think that this problem hasn’t been solved, in other words, nothing has changed.
– But why did they fire you?
– They did it in a very civilized manner. The government informed me that I was no longer going to work for “ArmenTel” and that they would give me another job. I still haven’t got that “other” job. If your boss fires you and replaces you with someone who is more experienced with skills, you start to think that perhaps you didn’t do your job well and that person has to replace you. But when your boss replaces you with someone who can’t do the job, you start to think that they just brought someone whom they had promised to employ. But I must say that I have always done my job well. I am an economist and I have experience in the communications field. I know how “ArmenTel”’s economy works.