Yesterday for the first time the head of the Audit Chamber (AC) Ishkhan Zakaryan made a report. He presented the results of the audit of 2008 in the in the ministries of urban development and agriculture and the program of central heating of the city and presented quite interesting facts. He first spoke about the urban development ministry, where the greatest among of programming was implemented in the construction sector.
According to the quota the portfolio of the minister of turban development belongs to the Prosperous Armenia party, which nominated Vardan Vardanyan as a minister. However the AC audited the activities of the ministry since the last year period. At that time the minister was Aram Harutyunyan, the current minister of nature protection. Thus, out of 213 repaired objects the AC chose to audit 26. Those are all schools. According to Zakaryan damage of 171 million drams was revealed in construction of schools where payment for work that was not done was revealed. Moreover, the cost of restoration of these 26 schools was 3.2 billion AMD. If all the objects were audited the misuse and damage would be three or four times more. Moreover, violations in the amount of 106 million AMD were stipulated by artificial inflation. The doors and windows of the restored schools were of course changed too. The AC found out that the price of one square meter of non-opening doors and windows is 18-22.000 AMD and the ones, which open 28-36.000 AMD. However the purchase documents showed 50-70.000 AMD per square meter. “It turns out that they al least doubled the actual price,” said Zakaryan. The AC also scrutinized the activity of the state urban planning department and it turns out that in 2007 the state urban planning department did not report any act of destruction of green areas, which is simply amusing. And this happens at the time when in Yerevan as a result of elite construction almost daily green zones are being destroyed and the department hasn’t found at least one violation. “This is ridiculous when the statesman has to pay only 150.000 AMD for such an act and the average citizen is fined only 100.000. In 2007 constructing amounting 5.1 billion AMD was undertaken in 57 objects and only two of those were fined (100.000). Does this mean that the whole construction proceeded without violations?” asks the president of the AC and adds that their Chamber has 91 staffers in the whole territory of Armenia and received 93 million AMD from the budget for one year. As a result of their activity only 32.7 million AMD entered the state budget. “It didn’t even cover the maintenance costs. The AC finds the activities of the urban planning department unsatisfactory and inefficient,” said Zakaryan. Only last year the Audit Chamber revealed misuse of 240 million drams out of 930 million AMD programs of the Ministry of Urban Development. If this sector was examined fully more violations would be found. To our question as is there any program that would proceed without violation Zakaryan answered, “No.” During his meeting with journalists in spring Mr. Zakaryan mainly complained about the purchase process by saying that the purchased items were showed in lower numbers than the market actually implies. Zakaryan says audit and supervision will continue, and he enjoys the support of the president and the prime minister. According to him, effort was made by the high-ranking officials to reach agreement with him but in vain. Zakaryan also said he believes that there will be reports to the office of prosecutor general, there will be officials who will be punished and there will be charges. The picture is similar in agriculture. The Audit Chamber revealed misuse of over 284 million drams. Misuse of 71 million drams was revealed in cleaning riverbeds, and misuse of 33.5 million drams in irrigation. Misuse of 30.6 million drams was revealed in the construction of checkpoints for the prevention of infections from getting to Armenia, where the complete sum was paid for a half-built facility. Let us remember that the ministry of agriculture has been headed by the Dashnaks for quite a long period. During the implementation of these programs the minister was Davit Lokyan and not Aramayis Grigoryan (the current minister). The Audit Chamber also revealed misuse in two directions of the urban central heating program financed by the World Bank: restoration of the central heating of blocks of apartments and heating systems for underprivileged families. For the first direction, money was transferred to an offshore area to buy equipment, the money disappeared and there is no equipment. For instance a company named Erfrez, which installs heating systems in 5 buildings, he 500 thousand USD, which it received in profit, sent to Panama in order to buy some devices from some company. “Panama is an offshore zone. The money was transferred but there are no devices and the heating of the buildings works in half of its capacity and it was repaired with old parts. 2 buildings are heated and the rest not,” said Zakaryan and added that most part of the violations are done through offshore deals, which is the best way for money laundering. Zakaryan also informed that in near future they will present the results of the activities in Syunik marz, activities of the police and transport ministry. By the end of the year the results of examination of all sectors will be presented. Member of the Heritage faction Anahit Bakhshyan was also present at the AC session, who told us, “I came to two conclusions. One is sad and the other one is sadder. I had a little bit better opinion about our country and the government. This report made me shiver. I don’t even hope that the activity of any of our statesmen can be directed on behalf of the country’s good. This is very sad. The sad thing is also that Zakaryan being from the coalition and in other words the man from the government presented so many sad facts. I can imagine how much of that wasn’t actually presented. At any rate, I think that this is also bravery.”