2018 November 14

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Nov/14/2018: IRS goes after GazProm, audits reveal tax-dodging; public officials charged with conspiring to steal water; gov-funded healthcare officials charged with embezzlement; large food company fined for anti-competitive practices and misleading consumers; (more below........)
by ar_david_hh

All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. Currency in Armenian Drams unless specified otherwise.

HHK Eduard Shawarmazanov has criticized the Pashinyan administration for not doing better at their fight against the shadow economy http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/262299

IRS has audited GazProm-Armenia and found that the company was avoiding billions in taxes. The company purposely falsified the revenue for 2016/2017 years to avoid paying billions of drams, says IRS. The tax authority has also found that GazProm's delivery losses were 3x higher for mysterious reasons before the May of 2018. IRS has also discovered other details that point to deliberate falsification of numbers. A criminal case is launched http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148420 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SJE8Bml8Q

Public officials in Mkhchyan face criminal charges after it is discovered that they've authorized illegal water pipe changes to provide free water to 26 hectares of land http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148430

Prosecutors launch a criminal investigation against the officials of Psychiatric Care Center in Vardenis for embezzlement of public funds http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148410

Arzni Tohmayin food company is fined AMD 20mln for anti-competitive practices and misleading the consumers. The company was using vegetable-based products instead of real butter made out of milk. The cottage cheese distributed to kindergartens was also completely made out of vegetable oils. This not only mislead the consumers, but it also made it impossible for other companies to compete because the real milk products are more expensive. The government is now investigating to see if they've also violated other contracts signed with government agencies. The company was given a warning on 2014 after doing similar machinations with sour cream. http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148422

The police is cooperating with funeral bureaus to remove the names of deceased citizens from voting lists https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954538.html

Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan says the government did not require Alaverdi copper plant to shut down, but only asked it to comply with the environmental standards. The government is currently discussing the issue with the plant’s bank that has placed the plant at the brink of financial crisis. The plant itself is still working but will soon suspend its operations. There are also talks about building a new and a much bigger copper plant. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954558.html

...Ararat garbage center gets a processing equipment to separate and safely dispose the harmful materials https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954559.html

...An American recycling company has cleaned up, processed and recycled the Garni’s 50 year old garbage center in 1 month https://hetq.am/hy/article/98133

"Գումարներ չենք տալու, որ տուշոնկա գողացող նախկին զինվորականներին գովերգող խմբակներ պահվեն", Education Minister in Parliament. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hArOSPAJKU

Ministry of Transportation has changed the North-South highway construction priorities. Certain parts will be built first to reduce Sisian-Qajaran travel by 2 hours and 55km. A tunnel and two bridges will be built in the mountainous area. Earlier, other parts of the project were prioritized while providing no immediate significant improvements for the local travel. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954441.html

11 political parties and alliances will participate in the upcoming Parliamentary elections. Parties have begun publishing their MP candidate names. https://hetq.am/hy/article/98163

Artsakh Republic will soon begin the construction of $100mln water canal connecting Sarsang reservoir to 3 new reservoirs near Martakert. This will provide irrigation to 10,000 hectares of land http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148414

... more details about the reservoirs in Artsakh https://hetq.am/hy/article/98167

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Libermann, a strong supporter of Azeri lobby in the country, has resigned from the government citing anger about lack of enough actions against the terrorists that shoot rockets towards Israel http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/148445

Kamal Oksuzun, the Turkish-American lobbyist for Azerbaijan, has had tax related criminal charges dropped against him, after Armenian authorities conclude that his actions were not criminal. He was accused of dodging taxes after opening a firm in Armenia several years ago. Oksuzun still faces deportation for the alleged lobbying law violations in USA. The Armenian authorities have rejected the Turkish authorities' request to deport him to Turkey. https://hetq.am/hy/article/98152

Georgia and Armenia will implement an electronic information sharing system at the border to significantly improve duties process and avoid delays https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954477.html

Zaven Andreasyan wins St. Louis Winter Chess tournament’s B group. Few months ago, another Armenian player won the Fall Chess tournament https://armenpress.am/arm/news/954449.html

...Armenian grandmaster Smbat Lputyan has been appointed as the chief of FIDE's "Chess in School Program", which is tasked with promoting the sport among the youth https://factor.am/99376.html

Link to original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/9x4jgg/anticorruption_nov142018_irs_goes_after_gazprom/