Studying the ticket purchases made by ministries for one person for a business trip we found out that the Ministry of Finance spent the biggest amount of money in this direction in 2014, about 60 thousand USD: a part of the purchases are registered on the account of the Ministry of Finance, and the other part – on that of the State Revenue Committee.
So, in 2014, the Ministry of Finance bought plane and train tickets with an estimated value of 20 million 280 thousand AMD (about 42 thousand dollars). In two cases business class tickets were bought for the minister.
On 26-28 March, 2014 the former Minister of Finances Davit Sargsyan and former Deputy Minister A. Hayrapetyan were sent to Brussels by the decision of the former Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan to participate in the discussion of the issues related to the new macro-financial support of the UN. One business class and one economy class tickets were bought from «Armenia Travel + M» Company in the directions Yerevan-Vienna-Brussels-Vienna-Yerevan for 1 million 991 thousand AMD.
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We are informed from decision 867-A of 11 September, 2014 of the RA Prime Minister that on 16-19 September a 12-member delegation headed by the Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan was sent to Bonn in Germany. Besides the minister other 6 members of the delegation were employees of the Ministry of Finance. One business class ticket was bought for Gagik Khachatryan in Yerevan-Moscow- Düsseldorf-Moscow-Yerevan directions, and 6 economy class tickets were bought for the 6 members of the Ministry of Finance.
The tickets were bought from “Arta” LLC. 1 million 738 thousand AMD was spent for the 6 economy class tickets, 290 thousand AMD for each, and 1 million 475 thousand AMD was spent for the business class ticket. In this case the business class ticket was about five times more expensive than the economy class ticket.
We see in the purchases made for one person from the RA State Revenue Committee adjunct to Government that in 2014 tickets with an estimated value of 8.9 million AMD (about 18500 USD) were bought for foreign business trips. The Ministry of Finance itself was a side of the purchase contract, because since April of the last year the State Revenues Committee has been included in the structure of the Ministry of Finance, thus in general, in 2014 the ministry bought tickets with the cost of 29 million 275 thousand 560 AMD (about 60 thousand USD).
In particular, on 9 July 2014, a contract was signed between the Ministry of Finance and “Arta” Company for obtaining one business class and two economy class tickets with the cost of 1 million 192 thousand AMD in Yerevan-Moscow-Brussels-Moscow-Yerevan directions.
We are informed from decision 609-A of 2 July 2014 of the RA Prime Minister that the Minister of Finances Gagik Khachatryan and deputy minister Artur Afrikyan were in Brussels on 25-29 June in order to participate in 123rd and 124th sessions of the Customs Co-operation Council of World Customs Organization.
It is mostly like that Gagik Khachatryan left to Brussels by a business class ticket, and came back by an economy class. In this case it is obvious that the business class ticket was 650 thousand AMD, and the economy class – 271 thousand AMD, in other words more than two times cheaper.
In the case of this purchase it is also interesting that the ticket purchase contract was signed after the business trip: it was on 25-29 June, and the contract was signed on 9 July. Moreover, the decision of the Prime Minister about the business trip was also made after it, on 2 July.
On 3-5 December 2014, the Armenian delegation headed by the Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan visited Sochi to participate in the operations of the 60th session of the Council of Heads of Customs Services of CIS member-states and the 13th session of the Joint Board of the Customs Services of the Customs Union Member-States.
On December 12 a contract was signed with “Blackstown” Company for obtaining tickets for the cost of 1 million 234 thousand AMD. According to the contract, two business class tickets were bought in Yerevan-Moscow, Moscow-Sochi, Sochi-Yerevan directions, three economy class tickets were bought in the same directions, and two economy class tickets were bought in Yerevan-Sochi, Sochi-Yerevan directions.
In the case of this purchase again, the main expenses were made for the purchase of business class tickets: 527.500 AMD, the economy class tickets bought for one person in the same directions were 160. 840 AMD or about three times cheaper.
It is obvious that in the case of this purchase also, the contract was signed after the business trip. In such a manner one more contract was signed between the Ministry of Finance and “WindRose Travel Pro” Company for the purchase of business class and economy class tickets for one person in Tbilisi-Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Tbilisi directions. The contract of the tickets was signed on 12 December, but the trips were made on 23 and 27 November. The cost of the contract was 912 thousand AMD, 700 thousand of which was spent for the business class ticket, that is to say, three times more expensive than in the case of the simple ticket.
Iravaban.net asked who and why went to Israel, and the Ministry of Finance answered, “On 24-27 November 2014, according to decision 1165-A of the RA Prime Minister made on 21.11.2014, the RA Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan and the Deputy Minister of the RA Ministry of Finance Artur Afrikyan were sent to Jerusalem (Israel) to sign the “On Mutual Assistance in Customs Affairs between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the State of Israel”.
To be continued
Astghik Karapetyan
Also read:
The Ministers travel by Business Class, others by Economy Class – 3
The Ministers travel by Business Class, others by Economy Class – 2
The Ministers travel by Business Class, others by Economy Class
