Last year, the National Assembly of Armenia together with the Government spent almost 245,000 USD for purchase of vehicles. All vehicles bought in 2014 were Toyotas, and were purchased from “Toyota-Yerevan” Company.
Samvel Mayrapetyan is the President of «Toyota-Yerevan» LLC; Vahe Gzraryan is the director. We learnt from the e-register that Sedrak Kocharyan, the son of the second President of RA Robert Kocharyan, and Andranik Gevorgyan, who is the relative of the former Minister of Territorial Administration of the RA Armen Gevorgyan are among the founders of the company as well.
Thus, according to the December 2013 State Purchase Contract Agreement 1 (the agreement was signed on 20 August, 2014) the RA NA bought a Toyota Land Cruiser from the «Toyota-Yerevan» Company paying 33 million 150 thousand AMD (almost USD 67,000). According to the agreement signed between Gurgen Dumanyan, the Head of Staff of the NA and Vahe Gzraryan the Head of the staff of “Toyota-Yerevan” Company, the price of the product was fixed as 43 million 150 thousand AMD, but we can find the following information in point 9,3 of the agreement:
“The Agreement is signed for a total prize of 43 million 150 thousand AMD, but based on the fact of the lack of means to cover the price of the agreement, the supply of the remaining products will be implemented during the following years in case of the provision of means by signing an additional agreement. If there is no provision of means during the next year of the product supply, the agreement will be terminated.”
In other words, Toyota Land Cruiser was bought in 2013, a part of its price was paid in 2014, and 10,000,000 AMD should be paid to “Toyota-Yerevan” Company.
The RA Government Decision 750-N of 14 July, 2014, has been mentioned as grounds for the purchase demand of the car, which provides allocation of money from the NA accumulation fund and organizing the purchase. In particular, the following is mentioned in point 3 of the Agreement “To determine that from the means provided by point 2 of the agreement, 33.150.0 AMD is provided for the payment of 4.6 motor size “Toyota Land Cruiser” in the frames of the Contract signed between the RA NA and “Toyota Yerevan LLC” on 20 December, 2013”.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had also taken the advantage to use the accumulation fund of the government and bought 7 sedan vehicles from the same company paying 62 million 980 thousand AMD (approximately USD130,000). According to the RA Government Decision 902 of 14 August, 2014, 76 million 141 thousand AMD (almost USD 152,000) was provided for obtaining the computer technique for the operation of the “Mulberry” system, as well as for replenishing the property and transportation means of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The marz administrations also took advantage to use the means of the government accumulation fund
At the end of the last year the Administrations of Kotayq and Gegharqunik marzes also bought service cars by means of the government accumulation fund. It’s quite curious that the both bought Toyota Camry 2.5 GAS cars for the same price (13 million AMD) and with the same technical characteristics from two different companies.
Administration of Gegharqunik marz, indicated the RA Government Decision 1366 of 4 December, 2014 as mentioned as grounds for the purchase demand of the car. The Administration of Kotayk marz – the Decision 1391 of 11 December, 2014, according to which 13 million AMD had been provided to the it for purchase of service cars.
Administration of Gegharqunik signed the purchase agreement with “Msho Tgha” LLC.
In order to find out more details we contacted with the director of the Company Ghazar Ghazaryan who stated that they had sold a car to the government, and recommended to contact with the accountant of the company Saro Ghazaryan for more information. The latter explained to iravaban.net that they had bought the car from «Toyota Yerevan» company approximately two months ago and they had sold it to the government in a month. The car was bought from the company rulled by a friend of the governor. “We bought an expensive car, and then sold it cheaper, because at that time the exchange rates were changing. I can’t tell the price, it has a public nature, why do you want to learn from me?”
The car was bought from the company rulled by a friend of the governor
We received similar information about the car purchase by the Kotayk marz administration. Kotayk marz administration had signed the purchase agreement with «Nairishin» OJSC, and the name of the governor, Aram Harutyunyan, is related to it. There are many publications in the media which state that he is one of the shareholders of the company.
The director of «Nairishin» company Yegor Kherimyan told iravaban.net that they had bought the car in December and sold it to the government in the same month. He insisted that the car had been bought in a more expensive price than it had been sold to the government, and as a result of the contract the company had suffered losses. He did not mention the exact amount, only told us that it had been a bit less than USD 5,000.
“If we had bought it for 11 million and sold for 13, they could have said that we had made a profit. But we bought it for more than 13 million AMD, and sold by 13 million. Harutyunyan didn’t do us a favor, just the opposite»,- Ye. Kherimyan said.
The director of «Nairishin» denied the information that Aram Harutyunyan was somehow connected with the company. “I have been the company director since 1986 and when the company was already operating, Harutyunyan was still a student”, – Ye. Kherimyan informed that Harutyunyan is his friend and tried to help him by obtaining a car during the devaluation of the Armenian Dram.
To our question whether his friend had caused him a harm Ye. Kherimyan answered,- “He didn’t have a choice, if you were in his place you would have done the same. We have to support each other. If he hadn’t asked me he would have asked someone else. There were no cars at that time, and we could hardly find a car. Everything was sold out, the situation was very disgraceful”.
Armen Ohanyan, the PR Manager of the marz administration also considered the information about Aram Harutyunyan being a shareholder in “Nairishin” as a lie. iravaban.net asked the reason why the marz administration bought a car through the mediation of another company. A. Ohanyan answered, – “The administration didn’t buy the car with the help of the company: That company had bought it from them, in fact. They obtained the car and sold it to us. What is the problem here?”
Aram Ohanyan also told us that he was not authorized to comment on questions of personal nature when we spoke about the friendly relations between Yegor Kherimyan and Aram Harutyunyan and asked the reason why the car had been bought from the company of the governor’s friend. We also tried to contact with Aram Harutyunyan to get the answer of the question, but he didn’t attend the telephone.
For the sake of justice, we have to say that when examining the market costs we found out that the government hadn’t bought the cars by an expensive price and that the car prices had really increased in connection with devaluation of AMD. The price of Toyota Camri begin from 15 million AMD according to “Toyota-Yerevan” Company’s website. But why did they buy the car from “Toyota-Yerevan” Company’s if they could have found a cheaper car for sure? On the other side, it is possible that from the very beginning the purchase made by another company had mercenary motives.
Astghik Karapetyan
