Announcement: No Monopoly at the Gyumri Customs Service Center

In Gyumri, there is no monopoly at the State Revenue Committee's Customs Service Center for external economic activities in the area of vehicle loading and unloading and related services. This was noted in a statement released by the State Revenue Committee.

“Importers have the opportunity to unload their vehicles from containers personally, through another person, or to apply to a service provider organization that won the tender in the area. In addition to this organization, today about 14 other organizations are also performing their unloadings at the Customs Service Center. It should be noted that about 60 percent of the vehicles arrive on their own, meaning they do not need unloading. Therefore, it turns out that out of 800 vehicles arriving daily, about 300 are unloaded,” the statement said.

The State Revenue Committee announced that the mentioned organization has no connection with the officials of the RA SRC. The selection of the organization was made through a public tender. The invitation and announcement for the procurement process were published on the official website gnumner.am on October 15, 2019, and “BGHM CARGO HANDLING” LLC was declared the winner. We urge civil society organizations fighting corruption and investigative journalists to examine this process. We believe this will put an end to the desires to spread false and defamatory statements.

The Committee also reports that claims regarding the number of employees and vehicles being processed are also false. The Northern Customs Administration has been strengthened with about 70 employees, of which 26 are inspectors processing vehicles, and on November 29, 2019, 802 vehicles were cleared in Gyumri.

Today, the SRC is putting all its resources into completing the construction and providing high-quality services to citizens. During our work, we have had numerous constructive meetings with citizens and business representatives from the field, resulting in the resolution of existing issues and the birth of new ideas. Therefore, if there are ideas to improve the sector, we urge to move into a constructive space, remain within the bounds of correctness, and discuss alleged violations primarily with law enforcement agencies,” the SRC statement concludes.