There is a public lavatory in Yerevan, moreover, this year about one million AMD at the expense of the taxpayers was provided to preserve that public lavatory. You only need to find the public lavatory and to have patience in order to use it without being disgusted.
On 1 June, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, touched the issue of public lavatories as well. He had stated that the public places must have “toilets which correspond with the quality standards”.
This public lavatory in Yerevan is located in the area near Grigor Lusavorich Church. We started the search of the public lavatory near the church, and it took us 20 minutes to “discover” it. An ordinary citizen would not be able to find the lavatory without knowing the exact place, not speaking about the tourists.
According to the contract the public lavatory is located on Yervand Kochar Street near the Gold Market. You should not confuse it with non-functioning bio toilets located near the church.
In general the idea is good: Yerevan Municipality allocates money for the preservation of the public lavatory. However, if we look at the contract in-depth, it is obvious that this is an unnecessary expense for the taxpayers.
Thus, the Municipality has signed a contract with «Bellis» LLC for preservation of the public lavatory. However, only the contract was placed in the purchase procedure that is there has not been any protocol of evaluating committee and such was not published.
And what should the LLC do? According to the contract it shall deliver preservation services, which include cleaning of the public lavatory, emptying of the garbage, cleaning of the floor and also disinfecting. It was especially emphasized that the cleaning of the public lavatory must be frequently done, preferable every day. This is what the contract states. However, the reality is different. You can watch the video here.
The video clearly shows that this public lavatory, if of course this construction can be considered to meet the public standards, is almost never cleaned. The residents of the neighborhood were surprised when they found out that this is a public lavatory. They stated that once or twice a month someone visits this place and does some work. The residents themselves carry out all the other services so that their residence would not turn into a public lavatory.
Referring to the Company, according to its services department “Bellis” LLC conducts construction work. There is not a word about the provision of cleaning services. It is not excluded that the Municipality does a “good job” for the construction company at the expense of taxpayers.
By the way, there are two more bio-toilets in the area adjacent to Grigor Lusavorich Church in Yerevan. One of them that “stands upright” by the side of the church, has been “inherited” to us from the former Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, and it does not function up to date. The other bio-toilet has become an ordinary public lavatory since there are no technical means of support and furthermore, it is not free.
According to the contract between the Yerevan Municipality and “Bellis” LLC, until 30 December 2017, the Company should provide maintenance services of the lavatory on Yervand Kochar Street at the expense of 920 thousand AMD.
Gevorg Tosunyan
