SUT.am investigation resulted in the cancellation of AMD 103 million illegal contracts

A few months ago we published an article about one of the budget purchases made by Yerevan Municipality. It was revealed that the municipality had signed contracts worth millions of dollars violating procurement procedures.

Thus, the municipality announced a tender offer for the renovation of 5 kindergartens in Yerevan, with 26 construction companies participating.

The winner was the company “Grand Basis” with which a total of 103 million AMD worth contracts were signed. It should be noted, however, that the “Grand Basis” company not only could not win the tender, but it had no right to even participate in the contest. The company was included in the list of companies not eligible to participate in the state procurement process until 2020.

Immediately after the publication, we reported the information to the relevant bodies of the National Security Service, requesting an examination of the mentioned information.

A short while after, we were officially informed by the Municipality Procurement Department that the municipality, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, concluded that the contracts were signed with violations.

Therefore, they were unilaterally abolished pursuant to Paragraph 33.8 of the Government Decree No. 526-N signed in 2017.

New procurement procedures have been announced for all canceled contracts. Some of the contracts have already been signed and the construction of new kindergartens has been launched.

 

Rafael Afrikyan