150 Million Dram Damage to the State: New Revelations

The State Interests Protection Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has studied documents received from the Republic of Armenia’s Audit Chamber regarding the export licenses for certain wild plants, particularly for the "matatuk" plant. The Prosecutor's Office reports that, in order to ensure the comprehensiveness and completeness of the studies, necessary documents were requested and also received from the Ministry of Environment of Armenia.

As a result, a criminal scheme was uncovered, applied under the circumstances of negligence displayed by officials of a state body. Specifically, it has been found that several legal entities, limited liability companies, and individual entrepreneurs submitted certificates obtained from the leaders of several communities in the Ararat and Armavir regions—Jrararati, Mrgasdan, Noramarg, Norashen, Berkanush—to the Agency for Biosphere Management of the Ministry of Environment in 2017-2018 to avoid natural resource usage fees and obtain a license for the export of wild plants. Furthermore, the documentation falsely certified that the "matatuk" would grow in these plots and that the legal entities had purchased various quantities ranging from 40 to 100 tons of "matatuk" roots from the plot owners, with some even having contracts for supplies up to 350 tons.

However, citizens allegedly involved with these contracts have clarified in writing to the Republic of Armenia's Audit Chamber that they either do not own any land, whether privately or as leaseholders, or if they do, they have not sold anything, do not recognize such companies, have not signed sales contracts or purchasing acts, and no "matatuk" has grown on their plots.

It was revealed that as early as May 2017, the Agency for Biosphere Management of the Ministry of Environment, having substantial doubts regarding the information provided by the subjects for obtaining export licenses, requested the Ministry to carry out investigations and monitoring in the relevant municipal areas of the Armavir region to confirm the presence and procurement of "matatuk".

However, after receiving the order to check these circumstances, officials from the Environmental State Inspection of the Ministry of Environment did not fulfill their obligation to oversee compliance with the requirements set for the export and import of wild plant and animal species. In turn, responsible officials from the Agency for Biosphere Management, having reasonable doubts about the credibility of the information submitted, did not conduct actions aimed at verifying the accuracy of the provided information and issued export licenses based on information that did not correspond to reality.

According to Article 10 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia on "Principles of Administrative Action and Administrative Procedure," when a competent administrative body has reasonable doubts about the validity of the data presented by individuals, it is obliged to take measures at its own expense to ensure their validity.

This means that the responsible officials of the Ministry of Environment demonstrated negligent or careless behavior towards their service, providing one-time export licenses without verifying the documents proving the acquisition of the exported plant. As a result, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, without obtaining permission for gathering and using "matatuk" from the authorized body, failed to pay approximately 150 million AMD in natural resource usage fees to the state budget, causing significant damage to the state.

Taking into account that the study obtained data indicating characteristics of negligence or carelessness by an official that led to severe consequences by not executing or improperly executing their duties, a criminal case has been initiated by the Department of Protection of State Interests of the Prosecutor General's Office under Part 2 of Article 315 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The preliminary investigation, which will fully, objectively, and comprehensively clarify all circumstances of the aforementioned processes and assess the actions of all parties involved, including those economic entities that caused damage to the state, has been tasked to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.