Allegations of Approximately 19 Million Drams in Corruption at Yerevan's Number 16 Special School

The Armenian General Prosecutor's Office has conducted an investigation based on documents received from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport regarding an audit performed at the "Yerevan Number 16 Special School" municipal institution. The investigation revealed that, despite the presence of 6 designated positions for janitors, 13 employees were carrying out janitorial duties under contractual agreements, receiving approximately 2 million drams in excess payments for their services.

It was also found that although the school year ended on May 26, 2018, according to the provided menus and accounting documents, meals were supplied to children from May 29 to June 28, including two servings per day, even on Sundays, resulting in an excess of food expenses amounting to nearly 885,000 drams. In contrast, there were no recorded food expenses during the same period in 2019 after the school year ended, yet there were no complaints or dissatisfaction from the parents of the children regarding the lack of meals. Overall, the food excess for the years 2018-2019 amounted to 1.6 million drams.

The audit team, affected by changes in the management of the municipal institution, performed a reconciliation of food expenditures for arbitrary days in 2018 and 2019. It was found that during the previous director's tenure, food was excessively recorded for all days. The value of the food excess resulting from violations of the Ministry of Health’s order regarding the "Standard Portion Size for Students in Educational Institutions" issued on June 6, 2014, amounted to 15,337,038 drams.

Thus, the investigation collected evidence indicating that responsible officials at the "Yerevan Number 16 Special School" municipal institution violated the requirement to have a maximum of 6 janitors as stipulated in the organizational chart and hired an additional 7 janitors on a contractual basis during the years 2018-2019. Additionally, they created false documents that did not correspond to reality, including menus and registration documents for children, and committed apparent acts of embezzlement of public funds on a particularly large scale, violating the specified standards set forth by the ministry.

Furthermore, the audit and investigation noted that the land allocated to the municipal institution, according to the real estate registration certificate, covered 13,172 square meters, and the building covered 4,111 square meters. However, as a result of the Yerevan Mayor's decision number 7305-A on December 30, 2011, a newly defined plot crossed out 3,692 square meters of land with a market value of 350,846,400 drams, which had undergone state rights registration four times between 2012 and 2017.

Considering that the investigation carried out by the prosecutor's office revealed sufficient data indicating the apparent presence of embezzlement of property on a particularly large scale and the commission of official forgery, a criminal case has been initiated in the Public Interest Protection Department of the General Prosecutor's Office under articles 179, part 3, clause 1 and 314 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The investigation has been entrusted to the Investigative Committee of Armenia.