How $122 Cash Registers Arrived in Armenia at $255: Hetq

The State Revenue Committee has disclosed the government's decisions regarding the purchase of new generation cash registers and the contract signed with a Chinese company after a lawsuit with Hetq.

According to the documents provided to us, Armenia, represented by the non-profit organization "Office for the Implementation of Cash Registers", paid $6,375,000 to the Chinese company "PAX Technology Limited" for acquiring cash register machines. According to the disclosed contract, the company exported 25,000 units of cash register devices to Armenia, with a unit price of $255.

The contract provided to us is incomplete; the annexes that serve as inseparable parts confirming the supply of goods at the price indicated by the Chinese are missing. After making us wait for about a month, the State Revenue Committee informed us that these annexes are not available either at their office or at the Office for the Implementation of Cash Registers.

The cash registers imported to Armenia have an average value of $121.5 according to international trade databases. The disclosed contract indicates a higher unit price of $255, compared to what the representative of the Chinese "PAX Technology Limited" previously told us (an estimated price of $185 per unit when importing between 150-200 units, including transportation costs). Furthermore, the Chinese company informed us (we communicated as Georgian businessmen) that the price decreases for larger bulk imports. How then did the unit price in the contract become $255 when importing 25,000 devices?

Following the lawsuit and the subsequent disclosure of the mentioned documents, the State Revenue Committee initiated a criminal case. Employees of the Investigation and Operational Intelligence Department of the SRC established that the contractual value of the "Pax S900" model cash registers supplied to the state was recorded at a price higher than the actual cost. "In essence, additional funds were allocated by the government of the Republic of Armenia for the acquisition of cash registers, which was an obviously unprofitable transaction for the Republic of Armenia," the SRC's statement noted.

For more details, visit the original source website.