CONTROL CHAMBER FINDINGS ADDRESS DEVELOPMENT SECTOR IN GENERAL, SAYS MINISTER
12:51 ~U 02.07.13
The violations which the Control Chamber has revealed as a result
of recent inspections address construction activities in general,
Armenia’s minister of urban development has said, dismissing the
opinion that the findings target only his agency.
At a news conference held at the Government’s Press Center on Tuesday
morning, Samvel Tadevosyan explained the fact does not absolutely
relieve the Ministry of any responsibility for the existing situation.
“The Ministry has implemented several projects, and the preliminary
results are now obvious. Of the 6.5 billion Drams allocated from
state resources, only 1 billion has been saved, which is only 15%
of the total volume,” he said.
The minister stressed the need of finalizing the number and percentage
of the existing gaps before making any facts public.
“I have no doubt as to the professionalism of the Control Chamber
experts, but the reports do not contain in-depth analyses and
conclusions. The Ministry has conducted studies throughout the year,
revealing the source of the violations,” Tadevosyan said, attributing
most shortcomings to licensed companies.
The minister noted further that organizations responsible for
technical inspection also often failed to work properlys to reveal
gaps and shortcomings.
“Licensed companies carry out a technical inspection of 5-150
organizations through just a couple of employees. We studied and
suspended 550 construction companies last year, returning 53 million
Drams to the State Budget,” he said.
Speaking of kickbacks, the minister noted that the 15% savings policy
is aimed at abolishing such malpractices.
Asked whether the Ministry has ever turned to the Prosecutor General’s
Office after finding violations, Tadevosyan said that they have
chosen instead impose extra-requirement on companies. “Based on the
Ministry’s studies, however, we last year sent a couple of cases to
the Prosecutor’s Office,” he answered.
Armenian News – Tert.am