Meat Supplied to School with Fake Veterinary Certificates

The legality of supplying separate products to a school in Artashat city for state needs has been investigated by the State Interests Protection Department of the Republic of Armenia's Prosecutor General's Office, based on a letter received from a food safety inspection body under the government and accompanying documents regarding the results of relevant state oversight monitoring.

In this context, necessary information and documents were requested and received from the mentioned school. The study revealed that under the product supply contract for state needs, company 'A' (LLC) as the seller, obliged to deliver to the buyer, that is, the school, the meat of the quality and quantity specified in the contract, as well as to provide documents certifying its quality as required by the buyer in line with the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

As a document certifying the safety of the meat, 'A' LLC submitted copies of veterinary certificates issued to company 'B' in April, March, and August of 2019, claiming that the meat was produced in a slaughterhouse owned by an individual entrepreneur. However, there is data indicating that the specified individual entrepreneur provided services to 'B' LLC until November 2017, and this company ceased its operations in April 2019.

It was also revealed that the originals of two of the mentioned veterinary certificates are located in the Aragatsotn Regional Center of the Food Safety Inspection Body, while another one was damaged and therefore could not be put into circulation. Thus, inspection by the food safety authority and the prosecutor's office established that 'A' LLC evidently used false documents—the copies of veterinary certificates—as a right-privileged document, presenting them as certificates of the safety of the delivered meat, as a result of which the school accepted the product and made payment for it.

Considering that the recorded violations apparently contain the characteristics of a crime, the State Interests Protection Department of the Prosecutor General's Office has initiated a criminal case based on the attributes of the first part of Article 325 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, and the investigation has been entrusted to the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

Note: The suspect or accused of the alleged crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, through a court judgment that has entered into legal force.