Approximately 27 Million Drams Stolen at Yerevan State University, $10,000 Bribe Led to 400 Million Dram Contract

In response to reports of abuses that occurred at Yerevan State University during November-December of last year, officers from the police's main department for combating organized crime have conducted relevant checks to verify the authenticity of the online publications. During this process, materials from the State Audit Office concerning studies conducted at the university were forwarded to the police by the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The materials contained information about particularly large-scale misappropriations that had taken place at the university. To verify these details, officers from the police’s main department for combating organized crime discovered several instances of abuse within the primary university.

It was revealed that 18 employees of the university had actually not attended work during various months from 2015 to 2018, having been absent from Armenia for long periods. Officials, leveraging their positions against the interests of service and based on group interests, not only failed to record these employee absences in work time accounting records, but also documented blatantly false information in official documents. As a result of all this, approximately 18,000,000 drams paid as salaries to those who had not actually attended work were embezzled.

It was also discovered that rental payments made by one economic entity leasing space on the university premises had only been partially credited to the university’s account between 2008-2012. This wrongdoing led to the embezzlement of 9,200,000 drams.

During the preparation of these materials, officers from the department combating corruption and economic crimes called in the actual head of one of the companies that collaborated with Yerevan State University based on received operational data. According to a report provided to the main department, the actual head of the company had reached an agreement with a university official regarding the signing of a contract for construction works. Specifically, the university official received $10,000 worth of property as a bribe from the head of the company. In other words, the head of the company partially renovated the official’s apartment and villa, as well as installed a heating system. In return, in 2015, the university official signed a contract for construction works worth approximately 400,000,000 drams with the company.

A criminal case has been initiated at the police regarding large-scale embezzlement or waste, official forgery, and the acceptance and offering of particularly large bribes. The criminal case has been forwarded to the investigative committee. The circumstances of the cases are being clarified during the pre-trial investigation.