Politicians are still discussing and trying to figure out what the reasons can be. Currently the president’s revision department is examining the activities of the “Lins” foundation. The state taxation committee is also examining the financial activities of Mr. Tumanyan. There are rumors that the National Security service is investigating his activities too.
For your information please note that Artashes Tumanyan has been trying to recruit average officials to his newly established “New State” political party, as well as one of his workers, H. Hovsepyan. The president was disappointed about this and later both A. Tumanyan and H. Hovsepyan were fired.
Till now there hasn’t been any official announcement about this resignation. A. Tumanyan doesn’t say anything in this regard. But recently we were informed that he had applied to the U.S. Embassy in Armenia to give him an entrance visa to the U.S. As we know he has a house in the U.S.
Day by day new facts are coming out regarding what A. Tumanyan has done by using his power and official position. In our previous publications we wrote that his son owns a company producing plastic materials (Hytex-Plastic), which is located in the territory of the former Mergelyan institute. Besides this company there is another company in this territory registered under the name of his daughter’s husband, which is also registered as an Armenian-American venture (Hytex). The “Hytex-Plastic” company privatized these territories in 2002. This is the period when this institution was given to Russia on the basis of the mutual agreement called “property in exchange for debt”. In this period A. Tumanyan could take advantage of his position and buy large territories in this district for little money. There was even a governmental decision for this in 2002 (Decision #71).
This decision states that the government allows selling 494 s.m. territory belonging to the “Yerevan Mathematical institute” and 288 s.m. territory belonging “Yerevan Factor of Mathematical facilities” together with all equipments to “Hytex-Plastic” LLC for 8.495.000 dram”.
In other words this large territory was privatized for only 21000 dollars. In the same period you couldn’t even buy an apartment consisting of three rooms on the third floor of the same building. But Artashes Tumanyan could buy a territory of 782 s.m. in the center of Yerevan. There isn’t anything written about land in the mentioned decision of the government, it is written only about the territory and equipments in it. But in 2003 A. Tumanyan managed to get a certificate of property not only for this 782 s.m. territory, but also for the surrounding land of 2236 s.m. By the way, in that period the head of the cadastre of that community was the brother of former Yerevan mayor Robert Nazaryan, who was fired due to some conflicts. The story of this privatization is not clear. In 2002 representative of the “Hytex-Plastic” applied to court and brought a case against the municipality and the cadastre of Yerevan, claiming to make their contract valid and give them a territory. The judge, K. Stepanyan, brought a decision considering their contract valid and obliging the municipality to give a territory to this company to use. In that period this company didn’t have a property certificate, they only got it in 2003.
It is hardly possible that A. Tumanyan has spent only $20000 for making this deal. He might have spent much more for making this deal. In this case it is difficult to understand whether the “backing top” was in the president’s office or in the government. But this is not important. It is just pity that state property is sold at a price that is several times less than its market price.
By the way, according to our information as of February 3, 2006, of this year, “Hytex-Plastic” hasn’t had any transferred money, as for 2005, the transferred sum covered 29124 dram ($64.000). We talked to a representative of “Hytex-Plastic”, who told us that the “Jermuk”, “Coca Cola”, “Bjni”, “Hay Cola” companies are their consumers. This company makes plastic bottles for drinks. As for the mentioned companies, these are the leading ones in the Armenian market. This means that they place many orders and their product is sold well. But in 2005 the sum that was transferred to this company covered only $64.000, which is very low for such a financial turnover. And as well as they haven’t received any transfers on their account this year. We were informed from this company that they worked and accepted orders. According to this, we can assume that this company presents less production capacities in order not to pay taxes.
Of course it is good to have such a production in our country, but we should confess that A. Tumanyan took advantage of his official position to reach monopoly in this market thus taking the opportunities of other small and medium enterprises to produce plastic bottles. At the same time another company that belongs to A. Tumanyan named “Big Wheel” narrows the relative market too. Now the “Hytex-Plastic” company, which buys its raw materials from MP Samvel Alexanyan, is entering the Georgian market.