Much has been said about the process of contracting organizations for
funding constructions. Many constructors no longer wish to take part in
general contracting. The reason for this is not only that there is a
presence of the construction team, but rather, it is tied with the
conditions and issues having to do with professionalism. “Many bad
things are taking place in the field of construction,” says one
constructor who is well known in Yerevan. He has constructed many
buildings, but today he is not involved in construction and has never
won any contest announced by organizations despite the fact that he has
a large background of constructional work and some connections.
“I have participated in two general contracting contests and it
has become clear to me that in Armenia, nobody requires any quality in
work,” said the constructor and did not wish to state his name. In his
opinion, the first prerequisite for winning a construction grant has to
with the low price. It is not important if the price corresponds to the
actual price or not. “The grant contests being organized for years and
years show that being a professional plays no major role,” says an
experienced constructor. “The organization announcing a grant knows
beforehand how much it will cost to construct a building. There are
many cases when the organizations that win are the ones that present a
lower budget than the one foreseen. This means that the budget
representing the salaries and the prices of materials needed to be
bought reflect the quality. That is why many today complain that the
buildings constructed by funding provided by the “Linsie” Fund are
low-quality. If the price of something is a fixed price, how can it be
bought at another price? This means that it has either been stolen or
artificial.” As a result of poorly organized funds, many constructional
organizations, who were the ones to blame for setting low prices in the
beginning, ended up in a serious situation. “For many years, there was
no construction going on in the city and many of the constructional
organizations were forced to take that step. Of course, they were
wrong, but the people that motivated them were the directors of the
Office of Project Implementation who demanded a “cheap price”. They won
the grants at a low price, the price of construction material
increased, and at that time the “Linsie” Fund refused to pay the
difference in amount. Many went bankrupt. As of today, there are so
many criminal cases and so many people are in jail. Many organizations
are in a crucial financial situation. The reason for all of this is the
unorganized funding for general contracting.”
The same happened with the friend of the constructor mentioned above.
The friend currently has many debts to pay. “If you are not from the
construction clan, you are just wasting a lot of time and nerve on
those contests. It doesn’t matter, you are not going to win,” says the
constructor. “If we look closely at the projects implemented by the
“Linsie” foundation, we will see that one organization has won some
grants in various fields such as road construction, residential
construction, theatres, etc. That is not the way it should be. But when
you think about what can be done to eliminate that clan in Armenia, you
find out that there are people that have back-up and going against them
can cost you your life.”
Editor: “The “anonymous” constructor’s thoughts may startle some
experts, or cause anger and doubt. “168 hours” weekly is ready to
publish all opinions.