There are new interesting developments in the case of the first water development project worth of $32 million, which was supported by World Bank. The former head of the World Bank (WB) Armenian office, Roger Robinson is accused in those violations. Last week the head of the international projects department of GAP (Government Accountability Project), Beatrice Edwards visited Armenia in connection with those issues. British engineer Bruce Tasker and Beatrice Edwards have met with the British Ambassador in Armenia, Anthony Cantor, representatives of USAID and the head of the WB Yerevan office, Aristomene Varudakis. In 2003-2004 Tasker worked at the parliamentary commission on controlling the effectiveness of foreign aids and grants and the acts of violations have been submitted to GAP by him. “I took with me 12 packages of documents witnessing the violations,” Tasker says, “First, I introduced the credit agreement to Mr. Varudakis, on which the stamp of the communities development project office was false. The mentioned office was founded on December 17, 1998, indeed the contract was executed in September of the same year. It means that the document was certified with the stamp when that organization did not exist. I also introduced the letter received from the state register, which stated the date of the foundation of the mentioned office. At that time WB employee Naira Melkumyan, who was coordinating that credit program in that period, tried to confuse and said that the translation had not been done correctly. I also showed them the English version. At that time Varudakis tried to calm the situation and said, “It is the same, at that time no money was given”. Certainly, it doesn’t matter. Just they took a false stamp, went to the WB office and signed an agreement on receiving $30 million credit.
The second package of violations concerns the violations within the Yerevan water Supply Company (YSC). “168 Hours” has informed about the shortcomings in the reports and documentation of the YSC in its past publications too. In 2004 Mr. Tasker requested the mentioned report for the purpose of his works within the commission, but the WB delayed to give the document and did not give it. During their meeting Varudakis said that they were not in charge of that document. “At that time I showed the letter of Roger Robinson, where the former head of the WB office wrote that they can not give that document until they fully view and check that document,” Taker says, “At that time Mr. Varudakis said, “It doesn’t concern me, at that time the head of the office was Robinson”. Certainly, Dr. Edwards saw all those contradictions and said that after returning to the United States she would apply to the Congress with that issue. To note, during a meeting with Armenian journalists Edwards said that “the WB is not interested in discovering” the violations within the water development project supported by it. It is very strange that the WB Yerevan office does not give any information about that meeting. Two months ago, when the British “Observer” published information reading that Tasker accused the WB in violations, Mr. Varudakis organized a press conference at once and announced that it was not true and such thing had not happened. As for this time, during this meeting he could not refute the truth and say that no violations have taken place. Now this case has become more important due to the fact that a person has been accused in violations. Roger Robinson is accused since he knew about those violations, had the opportunity to prevent them, but did not do anything. Accordingly, if anyone is accused, the department of institutional integrity (INT) of the WB has to take this case under its consideration and find out the details. It is worth mentioning that this year GAP and B. Edwards investigated and discovered the violations on the part of WB general director Paul Volfowitz, after which he was removed. At that time a person was accused too. Roger Robinson is in Kyrgyzstan. By the way, the head of the IMF Yerevan office, James Macque has taken a business trip to Kyrgyzstan too. Maybe they are developing the water system of Kyrgyzstan in the same manner as they did in Armenia too. Now, let’s refer to a component of the project, which has made much noise in the past. According to Tasker, the WB statement writes that it has supported the installation of about 270 thousand water meters in the apartments of citizens (this has been approved by GAP). It cost about $8 million. However, everyone knows that the YSC has not installed any water meters free of charge. The mentioned company charged 6000-8000 dram from citizens for that purpose. Where did this money go? There was time there were rumors that the business of water meters was indirectly controlled by the former head of the Water economy state committee, Gagik Martirosyan. Even several years ago there was an attempt to discover this case concerning water meters, but there was no result. There are rumors that about 8-12 million dollar has been grabbed from the water meter business. According to Tasker, they are going to do their best with GAP not to return at least this 8 million from the credit to the WB. There is a very interesting fact, which concerns a sentence in the YSC financial statement as of 2003, which writes the following: “As of December 31, 2003, the Armenian government provided $25 million to the Communities development project implementation office. Due to lack of sufficient accounting records, the Company has not registered the total amount of credit to be paid”. This means, that the mentioned company has spent $25 million and did not maintain the accounting records in a due manner and did not record how that money was spent. This financial statement has been accepted and approved by Roger Robinson, who is accused by GAP now, and the other parties connected with that project in Armenia. By the way, both in England and the US the relative institutions are becoming more interested in the water supply system development project of Armenia.