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During the debate on Public TV channel on resolving the issue of road traffic rules and speedometers through a referendum, Ruslan Marandyan, head of the legal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), concealed the fact that an agreement on a new speed measurement system had already been signed.
During the debate, the guests of the program spoke about ensuring road traffic safety, and the need for speedometers among other issues. When asked by the host whether there was a need for speedometers measuring average speed in Armenia, Marandyan responded:
“The issue is not unfamiliar to us, we have had discussions, but as in all cases, in this case also, we need further work to draw conclusions. It is a very delicate, very sensitive issue, including on the legal domain, and it has multifaceted effects. At the moment, I have no conclusions, since it requires professional discussions. This issue is in our focus as it may be considered as one of the possible solutions to the mentioned problems. We need to understand whether this is the only effective measure at the moment that can be applied to achieve results. We need to understand whether we will encounter legal problems if applied, and secondly, whether in practice this will lead to the originally intended goal.”
In reality, however, the official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs fails to point to one important fact: about two months ago, an Agreement for the provision of goods was signed between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and “DG Base” LLC for speedometers measuring the average speed.
Fact Investigation Platform studied the Purchase Agreement and revealed that back in February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced a two-stage tender for the purchase of an entire system including also cameras measuring average speed.
As a result of the tender, an Agreement was signed between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and “DG Base” LLC on October 25. The value of the Agreement is AMD 15 billion.
The description of the goods being purchased in the Agreement states that the introduction of this system aims to enhance road safety: “Modern software solutions will enable carrying out round-the-clock monitoring of compliance with road traffic rules and automatically support the implementation of operational-reconnaissance activities.”
According to the Agreement, the video surveillance devices to be installed throughout the country will be able to record the movement of vehicles through road control zones, in particular, it will be possible to record the movement of vehicles in the traffic zone, violations, unsafe crossings, violations of road markings, driving in the opposite lane, driving under a red light, speeding and driving at low speed, etc.
To detect administrative offenses, according to the Agreement, the system will have a complex of technical controls: video surveillance and recording cameras, specialized software, a data storage system, a tape library, etc. For example, the complex of technical controls will recognize the license plate of a vehicle through its video surveillance and recording cameras and record the administrative offense. This offense can be recorded from cameras located directly near the control zones, on linear sections and intersections, as well as from video recordings. The complex of technical controls, interacting with specialized software, can automatically record the license plates, type, color, time and speed of all vehicles passing through the control zone.
Thus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs official is concealing the fact that the process of introducing a new traffic safety system has already been launched, for the purpose of which an Agreement worth AMD 15 billion was signed.
Hasmik Hambardzumyan
