The Pan-Armenian National Fund collected 15,870k dollars last year, which was used mainly for the reconstruction of Shushi. A lot of works have already been done with this money in Shushi. They have finished the construction of three roads, including the infrastructure, and now they are reconstructing two other roads. They are reconstructing the school after Abovyan, and very soon they will finish the construction of the library. The water project with the value of one million dollars is in process. Meanwhile the Fund is working in a number of villages of Armenia and Artsakh. Meanwhile, this Fund is one of those organizations of Armenia, which are often criticized in failures in the projects. The projects are mostly in the sector of construction, where it is easy to embezzle money. We have talked to the director of the Fund Ara Vardanyan concerning this issue.
– Mr. Vardanyan, the government’s financing allows to strengthen the control and provide a better quality. Is it sufficient? For example, the construction is totally implemented and controlled by the state but there are big suspects about the control. The media has written about this too.
– I cannot discuss the work of the government because we did not implement and control these works. As for our projects, we have several types of mechanisms. When the competition is announced for selecting the construction company, we organize another competition to select the technical control. When the winner company starts the work, the other company, which is independent from the fund, controls these works and the construction quality. Meantime another agreement is made with the company which implements the project to control the project. Besides that we have a financial department in the fund. After giving the order our expert goes to analyze, after which we can make the payment. Three people are checking and controlling, after which the payment is possible. And in the end of the ear we order physical audit. We control not only the financial flows, but the separate projects as well. It is also important that the representatives of our donors can have their representatives at all works. They have the right for vote and almost always decisions are made with consensus.
– Do the involved parties make money in competitions by getting some percents from the paid money?
– I work in this position for about two years and neither of the construction companies have ever complained of the competitions, even the ones which lost the competition felt that they had felt in fair conditions. We are very strict to everyone. Cronyism and nepotism don’t work here, even if the best partner construction companies fail to present any document, they are disqualified. This is not an organization they can play tricks with.
– In the end of the marathon in 2009 the find announced that 15.8 million dollars had been donated, but the sum of donations had been twice more during the previous marathon. What is the reason? Is the reason the crisis?
– The crisis has nothing to do here. We should understand that there is some money which is collected by all our donators, except for the large donators, and this sum ranges from 5 to 8 millions. The large donators give 500k dollars or more. This difference of the money collection is the result of the fact that the large donators have paid less. For example, Mrs. Luis Manukyan-Simon has been giving one million dollars every year during the past 12 years, and it is already two years that she does not give that much and says that she needs some break. Of course as a result of this we collect less money, but we can’t do anything. I can bring another example. Samvel Karapetyan promised 35 million dollars, 15 millions out of which had to be spent on building a hospital in Stepanakert. The hospital; is begin built now but it does not mean that we must be sure that Mr. Samvel Karapetyan will donate 15 millions every year. People usually pay attention to the final sum we collect, but I encourage them to pay attention to the number of donators too.
– Do the large donators keep their promises or there are people among them who promise for their PR but later fail to give money?
– Our fund differs from other organizations with the fact that after getting promises we take care to get the money from the donators. The audit checks this too; they check the promised and received donations. These rumors started during the time of this 35 millions, when Samvel Karapetyan and 3-4 expressed willingness to implement the projects they have promised themselves. It doesn’t matter for us if the money is directly paid to our account. The important thing for us is to see that the promised projects are implemented. For example, Genadi Stepanyan and Eduard Gulyan promised to build a birth house in Stepanakert. They have started the works already, which means that they have kept their promises. For rich people it is more difficult not to keep the promises.
– Why?
– Because we will not call the people who have promised 50 dollars for many times, but we always stay in touch with large donators. We don’t collect the money and think what to do; we start the construction and collect the money during the construction process. We have to also receive some donations this year because last year some people promised 500k dollars but said that they could give that money in October of the next year. We have their promises on our documents and start the construction with our current sources.
– Are political developments an obstacle for the collection of money? There is an opinion that last year we would receive more money if we did not have the football diplomacy.
– I don’t think so. Of course the head of our board is the president of the country, but he is not the one to make decisions and all decisions are made through a consensus. I always try to introduce this mechanism during our meetings with the Diaspora. I don’t separate the fund from the government but I try to make sure that the fund is independent from the government. Our work is done only for helping the ordinary villagers. I don’t think there is anybody who can convince me that a child in Karabakh or the villages of Armenia should be hungry because of the processes between Armenia and Turkey. The president who chairs the board gives us a lot of support to work in Armenia, but he does not in any manner influence on the decisions of the organization
– Do you have any idea how much money will be collected this time?
– It is hard to say but hardly it can be less than we collected last year because we are working hardly. Especially we are working on organizing a dinner in Moscow, which will take place on November 16 in participation of the presidents of Armenia and Karabakh. We have had a lot of meetings in Moscow, and now we are working on the number of the participants. If last year 50 businessmen attended the event, this time we are going to multiply this number of invite three times more people. We don’t have too much expectation from the Diaspora this time. During many years most of the donations were made by the Diaspora in the US and Europe. I think it is time to give this role to the Diaspora in Russia, which has been very passive during the 17 years of our activities.