Recently, the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission made a decision to allow the owner of energy power distribution networks of Armenia, “Midland Resouces” company to sell its 100% stock share to Russian “Interenergo” company, which is a part of the Russian RAO EES company.
Last year the RAO EES wrote in its annual report that it had paid $73 million and purchased the energy distribution networks of Armenia, which caused confusion in Yerevan. Later, both the electric distribution networks company and the energy ministry of Armenia denied those rumors. It turned out that the RAO EES didn’t buy 100% of the stocks of that company, but rather a right to manage that company for 99 years with a privileged right to buy it later. The World Bank and USAID expressed their concerns about that agreement. In spite of that, in a couple of months both of these organizations did well, furthermore, the head of the Armenian branch of the World Bank said that it was a positive agreement. in 2002 the energy distribution networks company was sold to British “Midland Resources” company for $37 million. At the time the RAO EES wanted to buy the energy distribution networks as well, but it wasn’t sold to that company thanks to the WB’s efforts. The WB said that the RAO EES was a non-transparent company, worked in poor conditions and didn’t do anything for international audit. The WB didn’t want such a suspicious company to buy a strategic company belonging to the RAO EES. Last year the Armenian government, the WB and the RAO EES led secret negotiations and came to a final agreement. The Armenian government was not able to resist the pressure of Russia because Armenia is an outpost for Russia. It would be right to say that our authorities tend to be the outpost of Russia and do everything for that purpose.
After the RAO EES bought the energy distribution networks company, it made an audit, but the results were not informed. There were rumors saying that the reason that the company didn’t publish its audit results was the fact that there were too many violations in their activities and that they had overstated the real sums of their investment. It was said that the company spent twice less money than it claimed. At the time, there were rumors saying that “Interenergo” company was going to fire the executive director of the energy distribution networks, Evgeni Gladunchik and announce what it had found. But it didn’t happen; Gladunchik is still in his position and no violations have been declared. Besides that, the RA public prosecutor’s office was investigating cases of violations in that company, but in spite of all this, they didn’t publish anything. Yesterday the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission gave the RAO EES permission to buy the stocks of the energy distribution networks, i.e. the process that started one year ago was legalized. After all this it is clear that the public services regulatory commission is not independent and can’t keep on doing what it is told to do by the authorities, especially when those deals are made with Russia.
In addition, member of the mentioned commission, Samvel Arabajyan told “ARKA” that the terms of operation of the networks would not change, the only thing that would change in that company was the management and the owner. It means that all the responsibilities of the “Midland Resources” were given to the new owner of the energy distribution networks. Deputy director of RAO EES, Anatoli Vagner has said that their company is going to invest $7 million within the next month. According to them, the investment will be spent on getting new technical equipment for the distribution networks. This is all stated in their documents and they will probably tell the commission later on. As for the commission, it will approve that information for sure. In other words, they will not make any investments, they will just make up numbers on papers and will show them to the Armenian government and the people. As for our government, they will simply not pay attention to the violations. After all, outposts should be obedient.