Government and “Razm.info” Publishe “Classified” Information (updated)

In October of this year, RA Ministry of Defense suggested extending the ammunition production license of “65th Military Factory” CJSC by 5 years.

“The scope of work of the company mainly includes repair of firearms, separate artillery systems, and technical service of troops, production of means of aviation strikes”, Razm.info website writes, by providing the total price for the supplied goods (by dates).

During 5 years, the company, which has 100% of state shares, has conducted weapons production works by state order, the total cost of which has formed about 2 million USD.

Note that these financial details are not mentioned in the respective decision published in the e-gov.am website.

In order to assess corruption risks, SUT.am sent a similar inquiry to RA Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, asking about the total cost of weapons purchased by the ministry from “65th Military Factory” CJSC during 2012-2017.

In response to our inquiry, the Ministry of Defense refused to provide relevant information to us. One of the points justifying the refusal was Clause 48 of the Order of RA Minister of Defense on “Enhanced Ministerial List of Information subject to Becoming Classified”.

According to the document, the planning and reporting data with regard to contractual obligations and transactions are considered confidential, i.e. the data that are published in Razm.info website and in the respective draft government decision.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that this is not the first time we find information announced to be secret in open sources. Earlier we had written about the classified procurements of the RA National Security Service, which were published in the public procurements website.