Tender Unjustly Rejected for a Cheaper and More Beneficial Bid; Criminal Case Initiated

The State Interests Protection Department of the RA Prosecutor General's Office has revealed, based on publications from mass media (including the newspaper "Haykakan Zhamanak") and reports released by the RA Court of Accounts, that the Ministry of Agriculture of RA approved a procedure for purchasing agricultural pesticides on February 2, 2016, through framework agreements for its needs.

A company was selected by the ministry's evaluation committee based on a price offer of 15,508,150 AMD for the plant protection product "Cyper Maxi," which contains 250 g/l of the active ingredient cypermethrin.

At the same time, another company submitted a bid offering the plant protection product "Ripcord," which contains 400 g/l of cypermethrin, with a price offer of 12,616,800 AMD. However, the evaluation committee rejected this company’s proposal, claiming that the type of pesticide offered is not used against forest pests and diseases.

However, both of the plant protection products proposed by the aforementioned companies were registered in the list of "Chemical and Biological Plant Protection Agents Permitted for Use in the Republic of Armenia" established by the head of the Food Safety Authority of the Ministry of Agriculture of RA on February 25, 2011. In both cases, cypermethrin is listed as the active ingredient.

This means that the type of pesticide offered by "Ripcord" is also permitted for use as a plant protection product in the Republic of Armenia. The justification given by the Ministry of Agriculture’s evaluation committee claiming that it is not used against forest pests and diseases is unfounded and does not reflect the reality.

It has thus been established that responsible officials in the Ministry of Agriculture of RA, evidently abusing their official position in contradiction to the interests of the service, did not fulfill the requirement for the economical, effective, and beneficial conduct of the procurement process as stipulated in the then-applicable "Procurement Law of RA." This means that, without sufficient justification and with a reasoning that does not correspond to reality, they rejected the bid of the selected participant, which had a price offer lower by 2,891,350 AMD, for a plant protection product with a higher concentration of the same active ingredient by 150 g/l, causing significant harm to the legitimate interests of the state.

As a result of the investigations, a criminal case has been initiated at the State Interests Protection Department of the RA Prosecutor General's Office on the grounds of a crime envisaged by part 1 of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code.

The investigation of the criminal case has been assigned to the RA Investigative Committee.