2019 April 1

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Apr/1/2099
by ar_david_hh

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

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The year is 2099

https://starwarsintrocreator.kassellabs.io/#!/BLbPb4v4pd3gMAF9oYdi

Pashinyan has thanked the public for paying taxes and demanding businesses to print sales receipts, which allows IRS to learn about business' true income. He said the IRS has collected 11.4bln more in taxes on the first quarter of 2019 vs 2018.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/157956

NSS earlier arrested the deputy Healthcare Minister (acting since May 2018) for bribery. He took a 1.5mln bribe from a chief of a clinic in order to help the latter with favorable rulings on some financial decisions, says NSS.

Healthcare minister Torosyan has welcomed the anti-corruption measures.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/157943 --- https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969689.html

The police has busted the gov-funded director of Yerevan State Light Industry College with 5.9mln embezzlements. He is accused of hiring several people who never went to work but received salaries between 2014-2019.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969703.html

Opera theater staff is protesting the Culture Ministry's decision to fire director Orbelyan. Ministry says he broke the protocols by holding multiple positions simultaneously.

Pashinyan met with the opera staff for 1 hour, to hear their complaints about the firing. He said the Ministry sent to his office the official decision why Orbelyan was fired, and they'll examine it fully. PM says if the Ministry findings are true then the termination decision is appropriate.

PM said the Justice Ministry examined a complaint last year and found that Orbelyan's appointment as a director was done with violations to the law.

Second reason for the firing is that by being not only a director but also a chief conductor of the orchestra, he spent half of the 2017 traveling abroad, thus not being able to do the job of the director properly. On 2018 he was missing from his office for 194 days.

92mln in violations were found during the 2017 audits. Only 10.5mln was recovered.

Ministry found that Orbelyan fired multiple employees for no valid reasons. When he was told to reinstate them, he refused for invalid reasons.

On 2016 he was appointed as the artistic director of the theater. On 2017, Culture Ministry appointed him simultaneously as the Opera general director, without a competition. At the same year, he was appointed as the chief conductor. He is currently holding 3 high ranking positions within Opera, which is against the rules. He is only removed the the genera; director's position, and "not kicked out of Opera as some have made it sound like".

The decision to bring an "outsider" as the new director was suspended after the meeting with PM. The current deputy director will act as the temporary director before a new one is appointed.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/157946 --- https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969661.html ---- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xIA3wc9sjSE

The government will proceed with the plan to raise the administrative fees by 60x for pawnshops and exchange rate locations, but will delay it until 2020. The Finance Ministry says the current fees (only 50k/year for exchanges) are too low, while many businesses earn revenue in dozens of millions. The negotiations by shop owners yielded no results.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969722.html

President Armen Sarkissian met the IBM representatives. The latter decided to discuss a possible high-tech cooperation plan in Armenia.

https://hetq.am/hy/article/102379

Yerevan State Medical University is being used to train the military medics of CSTO nations. Several high ranking Kazakh officials will undergo a month-long training.

http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/267122

A candle-light march took place in memory of soldiers who died during the April-2016 battles in Artsakh Republic. The military actions begun on the night of April 1st and lasted 4 days. Both sides suffered hundreds of casualties.

The presidents of Artakh and Armenia visited Talysh village, which was the center of the fierce battles. It was briefly invaded by the Azeris before being liberated again. The village is now re-building after the shelling, and more residents will soon be able to return.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969730.html ---- https://factor.am/137815.html

In Barcelona, Armenians threw a party and a concert to celebrate the heroes of the Artsakh war. A group of Azeri protesters gathered outside.

https://youtu.be/mYZeqDtR7eo?t=6

Turkish ruling party AKP has lost in all 3 biggest cities during yesterday's regional elections. Two former high ranking ministers (Parliament Speaker Yildirim and the former Finance Minister) lost the elections to opposition CHP party candidates in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. The election commission has confirmed that opposition won by 28,000 votes in Istanbul, with each party receiving over 4.1mln votes.

AKP 39 cities, CHP 21, Kurdish HDP 8.

HDP defeated cCc MHP in crucial Kars and Igdir regions. They also won 6 other regions of Kurdistan.

Armenian-Turkish Selina Doghan has won the race for a municipality assembly position in Istanbul. https://armtimes.com/hy/article/157936 ---- https://armenpress.am/arm/news/969664.html --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1yDMYSEwCs

https://www.ermenihaber.am/am/news/2019/04/01/%D4%B9%D5%B8%D6%82%D6%80%D6%84%D5%AB%D5%A1-%D5%8F%D4%BB%D5%84-%D5%A8%D5%B6%D5%BF%D6%80%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%A9%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%80/151689 ----- http://panarmenian.net/m/arm/news/267092

Assyrian-Armenians are celebrating Khab-Nisan, their New Year's day. It's the year 6769 on the calendar. (you will never be alive to see 6969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj85wXIUNm4

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. Currency in Armenian Drams unless specified otherwise. Today's thread is brought to you by Tigran Avinyan.

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Link to original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/b88jqo/anticorruption_apr12099/