Large-Scale Embezzlement in the Implementation Process of dasaran.am Grant Program

The Republic of Armenia's State Audit Office has sent the results of the ongoing monitoring of funds allocated from the state budget to a non-governmental organization for the years 2017-2018 and copies of related documents to the Prosecutor General's Office. These documents have become the subject of examination within the framework of filing a lawsuit for the protection of public interests by the prosecution.

In order to ensure the completeness of the investigation, additional documents were also requested and received from the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia. Consequently, it was revealed that, based on the grant agreements signed between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia and a certain non-governmental organization on February 14, 2017, and February 2, 2018, an allocation of 180 million AMD was made to the organization as a grant for the implementation of the "Support for the Dasaran Educational Information Program" (dasaran.am). The organization committed to using the financial resources for the purposes and amounts specified in the contracts.

An examination of the information repositories and other sources of the State Revenue Committee revealed that, within the framework of the grant program implementation, the NGO purchased services from a commercial company during the years 2017-2018. The costs of these services were compared with the data on salaries calculated by the company and acquisitions made during the same period. It was also taken into account that the resources available to the NGO were adequate to carry out the work presented as services purchased from the company.

Based on the above, the permanent monitoring conducted by the State Audit Office has concluded that the mentioned NGO acquired non-invoice documents from the commercial company. The examination also provided data indicating that significantly more funds were allocated from the state budget for the implementation of the program than were actually required.

According to the preliminary calculations made by the State Revenue Committee, based on the initial data recorded in the monitoring results, in case of issuing or receiving non-invoice documents, a penalty will be imposed based on the discrepancies in the documents certifying the actual performance of the transaction, which currently amounts to approximately 138.5 million AMD.

The acquisition of non-invoice documents by the NGO seemingly indicates violations of the requirements stipulated by the grant contracts, namely, that the allocated financial support had not been used for the purposes prescribed by the contract in the indicated amount, and this may entail possible waste by the organization's employee(s).

In light of the facts obtained through the permanent monitoring of the State Audit Office and the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office, which exhibited characteristics of particularly large-scale waste by the NGO's employees through the misuse of their official positions, a criminal case has been initiated by the State Interests Protection Division of the Prosecutor General's Office under the first part of Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The preliminary investigation of the criminal case has been assigned to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.