2018 August 2

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption 8/2/2018: 1) Arrests made in Yerevan municipality after residents report embezzlement and bribery by employees 2) Government-funded company charged with criminal embezzlement after wasting hundreds of millions on things that should have costed less 3) No gifts for judges (MORE BELOW)
by ar_david_hh

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, even if they may sound as being guilty. Currency in Armenian Drams ֏ unless specified otherwise.

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Social security cleanup hits Yerevan. Prosecutors from 4 districts bring criminal charges against 15 Yerevan municipality employees after finding evidence of corruption. 18 residents voluntarily contacted the police and reported that the staff required bribes in exchange for keeping them on the aid recipient list. https://www.a1plus.am/1635515.html

Criminal case is launched against "Meloratia" company which received over AMD 600mln funding from the government to conduct construction and research work. They are accused of embezzlement. In one instance, they spent AMD 316mln on purchasing and operating 5 pieces of equipment that is only worth AMD 25mln. Even with one year labor costs included, it could not have coseted that much. Article lists multiple other questionable spending records https://www.a1plus.am/1635612.html

PM cabinet is deliberating a law which prohibits judges from accepting bribes gifts worth more than AMD 100,000 , or 400,000 throughout the year. The gift or its monetary value must be given to the state. There are cases when the judge can receive a gift if it can be explained outside of his professional career (I.e. family gives birthday present) https://news.am/arm/news/464703.html ---------- VIDEO https://youtu.be/0B7bxudlrMk?t=264

ArmTimes reminds the readers about a court decision that was made on June 4, 2008. The judge sentenced 3 men for hooliganism and burglary in "Roberto" market during the March 1st events. All 3 men admitted that they were not members of the opposition protesters, they came to Yerevan to take advantage of the situation and committed thefts, and that they were allies of Serj Sargsyan and have "done him favors in past" http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/142529

Armenian youth wins 5 medals, including a gold, in the European Greco-Roman wrestling tournament VIDEO https://youtu.be/0B7bxudlrMk?t=1122

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https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942485/

‘Past’ newspaper writes: the Yelq alliance between Pashinyan and Edmon Marukyan is over and has been over for a while now. Marukyan will form an alliance with Aram Sargsyan (brother of late Vazgen Sargsyan), and will name it Bright Republic. Pashinyan’s Civil Contract will participate in elections as a separate party. https://news.am/arm/news/464650.html

.... meanwhile, 1st Deputy PM Ararat Mirzoyan denies the claims, says they will announce it when and if the two political forces decide to part their ways https://www.aysor.am/am/news/2018/08/02/%D5%84%D5%AB%D6%80%D5%A6%D5%B8%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6/1449475

Human Rights Ombudsman visits mental health and other clinics and finds that some doctors do the tasks of others, while being unqualified for the job. The case is submitted to Health Ministry, which created a plan to appoint new staff and fill in the required job positions.

Naira Zohrabyan is the lead nominee by BHK in Yerevan Council elections, followed by the party member and journalist Petros Ghazaryan as the second choice https://news.am/arm/news/464710.html

Russian border guards in Armenia catch a Turkish spy who was tasked with finding ways to sneak into Armenia by bypassing the barriers. Cellphone with pictures of the barriers were found. (human smugglers often times do this to create paths for clients, but could also be a government agent, no other info) https://news.am/arm/news/464663.html

Health Ministry will send mammography devices to multiple regions to provide free cancer-screening to women https://youtu.be/0B7bxudlrMk?t=358

Textile manufacturer gets a 3 year import tax relief to invest AMD 370mln and increase workforce by 30%, providing high salaries to province workers https://news.am/arm/news/464717.html

... so does Lentex company which will invest AMD 1.96bln https://news.am/arm/news/464719.html

... IRS boss says they are studying other similar cases from 3 years ago to make sure those companies have begun paying the taxes after the end of the 3 year tax grace period https://news.am/arm/news/464718.html

Exports to EU and Russia grew in double digits in 1H2018 compared to 1H2017. All the details here https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942503/

Apricot exports grew by 78% YoY https://news.am/arm/news/464719.html

On 2007, a company called Glendale Hills was supposed to build houses for multiple families after receiving the money, but they filed for bankruptcy later. The families were left homeless and some live on rent. Today, they were protesting on front of the government building and asking for intervention. NSS chief Vanetsyan met with the protesters and announced that the funds have been gathered and the houses will be ready in 6 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQSH3dEGaCo

Third incident in one week when a citizen voluntarily surrenders automatic weapon and ammo to the law enforcement. The authorities have policy of not charging a person with crime if they voluntarily return an illegal weapon https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942580/

Azerbaijan shut down a very popular Azeri news site APA.az for misquoting president Ilham Aliyev's words during a ceremony. APA wrote that Ilham Aliyev said that they will bring Armenia down to its knees. Aliyev administration has denied making such statement, and decided to censor the news site because many others copied the story. The opposition claims that he is using this as an excuse to harm the site because it's owned by a wealthy oligarch family which is deemed as a possible threat to the Aliyev regime. Azerbaijan is "owned" by multiple rich families, including Aliyevs (president) and Pashayevs (1st lady) https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942586/ ------ https://www.azatutyun.am/a/29407096.html ---------- VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Iy4knfCWU

Gyumri 102 Russian military base servicemen helped the firefighters to extinguish a large fire outbreak https://www.aysor.am/am/news/2018/08/02/%D5%8C%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%BD-%D5%B0%D6%80%D5%A4%D5%A5%D5%B0/1449831

Archeologists found a pot-tomb in Tigranakert (city in Artsakh built by Tigran the Great on 95 B.C.) where a man and a woman were once buried. https://news.am/arm/news/464803.html

Alashkert FC also wins the ticket to the 3rd qualification round of Europa League https://armenpress.am/arm/news/942627/

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/9431ej/anticorruption_822018_1_arrests_made_in_yerevan/