DID ARMENIA FUND AND KARABAKH GOVERNMENT AGREE?
Lragir.am
18:32:54 – 14/01/2009
At last Armenia Fund set up an office in Karabakh. The strange
situation when the organization implementing projects worth millions in
the country has no office in that country was finally solved. Everyone
commended, although nobody explained why Armenia Fund operating in
Karabakh since 1992 did not have an office there. An explanation
was found in the ways of funding projects which in case of having an
office would be done through Karabakh. Others thought it was banal
antipathy between the leadership of the fund and the former prime
minister of Karabakh Anushavan Danielyan.
Anushavan Danielyan left office a year and a half ago, the leadership
of the fund has changed over that time, and someone has apparently
decided that Karabakh must be given more independence. The Fund was
provided with office at the home of the government of Karabakh, and
the head of the office is Valery Ghazaryan, an engineer who has worked
for the NKR department of construction. This department controlled the
quality of facilities built by Armenia Foundation, and "thanks" to this
department part of facilities were not approved for operation. Hence,
Valery Ghazaryan knows about the drawbacks of Armenia Foundation
better than others, and it is easier for him to fix the holes.
And there were a lot of shortcomings. For instance, the 170 km road
Nort h-South which must connect the regions of Karabakh bypassing
Aghdam.
Although the money was raised a few years ago, the construction of the
road is not over yet. The government of Karabakh was dissatisfied with
the quality of road works on a big section, and they demanded that the
Foundation or the contractor eliminated the drawbacks on their expense.
However, neither of them provided extra funds, and the section was
not built.
After this incident the legal aspect became more obvious. It turned
out that the Foundation and the government of Karabakh are unable to
share responsibility for the quality of construction. Who must assess
the work?
This question has had no answer for a long time. And the problem
was not just the moral function of "control" but also material
accountability.
It is not clear whether these issues have been addressed. Obviously,
the Karabakh government disliked that an organization carries out
large-scale work in its territory separately. Armenia Fund the chair
of the board of trustees of which is the president of Armenia would
also dislike being subject to the government of Karabakh. So, that is
why there is a fund which handles considerable funds and does a lot of
useful work. The CEO of the president has been an acting CEO for many
months now. Will this problem be solved after the office is set up?