Friday, January 31, 2021
Firms Linked To Armenian Officials Win Government Contracts
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia -- Workers rebuild a road in Gegharkunik province, Juy 4, 2020.
Companies owned by or linked otherwise to at least three senior Armenian
officials, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s deputy chief of staff, won
dozens of government contracts in 2021, raising suspicions of a conflict of
interest and even corruption.
Pashinian insisted last week that they did not exploit their government
connections to win tenders for road construction and procurements. Opposition
figures and civil society members remain unconvinced by these assurances.
As an outspoken opposition politician, Pashinian had for years alleged corrupt
practices in the administration of tenders won by individuals connected to
Armenia’s former governments. He claimed to have eliminated “systemic
corruption” in the country after coming to power in 2018.
Critics now question the integrity of some procurements handled by Pashinian’s
administration.
A road design company belonging to Bagrat Badalian, the deputy chief of the
government staff, is a case in point. Badalian joined the government shortly
after the 2018 “velvet revolution,” first as a deputy minister for local
government and later as chief of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian’s staff.
The company called Channakhagits Institut had been founded by his father Samvel
in 1995. The latter handed over his 88 percent share in it to Bagrat in 2020.
The most recent official records available show that Channakhagits won four
government contracts in 2017. Its fortunes improved dramatically in 2020.
Over the past two years the company has secured highway design services worth a
combined 677 million drams ($1.4 million). It won 21 government tenders in 2021
alone.
Speaking at a December 24 news conference, Pashinian denied that Channakhagits
enjoys privileged treatment because of Badalian’s government positions. He said
that it is one of the most qualified firms of its kind in Armenia.
Armenia - Speaker Alen Simonian speaks during a parliament session, September
13, 2021.
Pashinian also ruled out privileged treatment of a road construction company
which is run by the brother of Alen Simonian, the Armenian parliament speaker
and a leading member of the ruling Civil Contract party.
The company called Euroasphalt had an authorized capital of just over $100 when
it was founded by two little-known individuals less than two years ago. It won
in 2021 three government contracts for rural road construction worth a total of
748 million drams ($1.5 million).
Speaking with journalists in September, then Deputy Prime Minister Suren
Papikian insisted that the contracts resulted from fair and transparent tenders.
Simonian afterwards condemned media outlets for questioning the integrity of
those deals.
Pashinian said, for his part, that the speaker’s brother Karlen is only the
chief executive of Euroasphalt and does not own it.
It emerged in October that one of the company’s two officially registered
addresses is the same as that of a Yerevan apartment where Simonian’s mother
currently lives. The other address could not be located.
Karlen Simonian is also the deputy director of another firm that supplies
concrete to builders. An Armenian civic group revealed recently that it donated
over $10,000 to Pashinian’s party in the run-up to the June 2021 parliamentary
elections.
Armenia -- The parliament building in Yerevan, January 14, 2019.
Alen Simonian raised eyebrows when he appointed a businessman and friend of his
as chief of the Armenian parliament staff days after becoming its speaker in
August. The businessman, Vahan Naribekian, owns the Argavand Kahuyk company
supplying furniture to the National Assembly and various government and
law-enforcement agencies.
Argavand Kahuyk has earned 250 million drams ($520,000) from 152 supply
contracts secured since the 2018 regime change. Nineteen of them were signed
after Naribekian became the chief of the parliament staff.
In a recent interview with the Hetq.am investigative publication, Naribekian
claimed that his company has done much better since Pashinian’s rise to power
because the current authorities handle the procurement process more fairly.
Varuzhan Hoktanian, the program coordinator at the Armenian affiliate of the
anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, said, however, that the
authorities lack the “political will” to substantiate such claims with more
detailed information. Pashinian’s comments on the issue did not dispel concerns
about possible government corruption, Hoktanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Businessman Khachatur Suqiasian speaks at the inaugural session of the
new National Assembly,, August 26, 2021.
Pashinian also pledged to separate business from politics when he swept to power
during the 2018 mass protests. He stated shortly afterwards that Armenian
entrepreneurs no longer need to hold parliament seats in order to protect and
increase their assets.
Two wealthy businessmen, Khachatur Sukiasian and Gurgen Arsenian, were elected
to the current National Assembly on the ruling party’s ticket in June. Sukiasian
and his extended family have reportedly expanded their business interests since
2018.
Hetq.am reported in October that a fuel importing company linked to Sukiasian
has signed with the Armenian Defense Ministry supply contracts worth $14 million
since being set up in early 2020.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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