Kotayk Water Company Inflicts Approximately 4 Million Dram Damage to the State

The Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Republic of Armenia’s Police has uncovered several abuses at the Kotayk Water Users Company based on operational data received and operational-investigative measures undertaken by the department's officers.

Specifically, according to preliminary data, during 2017-2018, the management of the company exploited the non-diligent attitude of capable employees from the Water Committee of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources of Armenia, which resulted in violations of the basic requirements of contracts for providing water supply services signed with the subscribers.

At present, the company management has registered the volumes of supplied water in hectares instead of cubic meters, without installing water meters, effectively depriving subscribers of the possibility to monitor the volumes of supplied water.

The volumes of natural losses occurring during the water supply, ranging from 5% to 30%, have been added to the revenues of the water users, inflating the volumes of services provided in the electronic registers.

As a result, the balance of the receivables owed by subscribers to the company has been burdened by a total of 263,580,000 drams, which has caused severe consequences for both the water users and the organization.

Moreover, according to preliminary data, management of the company used its official position to input false data concerning the autogas, gasoline, and diesel fuel distributed for operational purposes in the vehicle fueling sheets, leading to the embezzlement of approximately 4,000,000 drams through misappropriation or waste.

A criminal case has been initiated at the Department for Combating Organized Crime in connection with acts of official negligence resulting in serious consequences, abuse of authority by employees of the organization, embezzlement of particularly large amounts, and the preparation of false documents by a group of individuals in preliminary agreement. The case has been forwarded to the Investigative Committee for further investigation.