Court Unveils Correspondence Between Arsen Torosyan and Davit Sanasaryan

As previously reported, at the Shengavit headquarters of the Yerevan General Jurisdiction Court, presided over by Judge Davit Balayan, a court session is continuing today, May 18, in the case involving the head of the State Health Agency (whose authorities have been temporarily suspended) Davit Sanasaryan and others. During the session, the Facebook correspondence between Health Minister Arsen Torosyan and Davit Sanasaryan regarding the studies conducted by the State Health Agency was unveiled, as reported by armdaily.am.

“Davit, what powers do your employees have to change the tender specifications? By allegedly gaining 700,000 drams out of a 100 million dollar deal, we have lost the opportunity to service dialysis machines and have questionable quality products that will directly affect patients' lives and health. I was unaware that your team changed the technical specifications; otherwise, I wouldn't have allowed it to happen. From now on, if there is an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of our subordinate or any healthcare institution, it will not be tolerated,” read Torosyan's letter as Sanasaryan's attorney presented it.

Following that message, Torosyan sent a letter sent by Samvel Sadyan in a PDF file.

Sanasaryan responded to the letter: “Arsen, the field of dialysis has been monopolized until now, and no one has managed to enter. We have sent the results of the dialysis market analysis to the head of the ministry's staff on January 8, and there has been no response to date. We have only proposed that the technical specifications take into account the preliminary specification, which is non-discriminatory and ensures competition. Based on the analysis of the dialysis market, materials regarding two companies will soon be sent to the Prosecutor's Office, as preliminary calculations indicate that the extent of abuse exceeds 1 million US dollars. Moreover, there are still discriminatory competitions being organized for a specific organization, for example, the competition announced by the Vanadzor hospital yesterday was discriminatory. Regarding patient health, visit the Masis hospital and see the conditions under which dialysis is currently being provided. I must say that it is prohibited to require service for the supply of consumables. There have been many cases where products not corresponding to technical specifications have been supplied and accepted. If you want to get acquainted with the details of the case, I invite you to our place for a joint discussion. I should mention that seven companies participated this time, and there was a difference of about 6 million AMD in the presented prices as a result of competition. I remain curious about what actions the ministry has taken so far and what actions it plans to take to make the dialysis market competitive. All discriminatory tenders will be suspended, and materials regarding those who do not comply will be sent to the Prosecutor's Office with their own justifications. Finally, let me give you one example: dialysis supplies are sold at prices 2.2 to 3.8 times higher than their customs value. You are my friend, but I cannot neglect my responsibilities if there is an obstacle; we will take legal action.”

Torosyan replied: “Davit, being friends has nothing to do with it when dealing with a patient's life. To me, a few million drams are not significant when it's a matter of a specific person's life, and that foolish law does not matter. It is prohibited to introduce service, yet is it allowed to spend several million on that service, which will result in a higher price and greater expense? And is it allowed for us to change the tender conditions so that ‘Zorashen’ LLC, which has not previously engaged in this business, can be a tenderer? Yes, it was our mistake to have accepted that proposal; had I known, we certainly would not have accepted it. I am glad that the Vanadzor hospital did not accept it, and ‘Zorashen’ will most likely fall onto the blacklist if it happens to deliver substandard goods. Next, my ministry is doing so much for the dialysis market that no one has done since the development of transplantology, so that we can replace people’s kidneys, so they do not need dialysis, and we are also opening new dialysis centers in Yerevan and the regions to meet the demand, but not at the expense of quality.”

Speaking about monopolistic policies, Sanasaryan said: “Arsen, I don’t know what kind of organization ‘Zorashen’ is, but I’m not interested; I see your work and I talk about your actions at every possible opportunity. Regarding lives, however, it has not been proven that there is a quality issue. In reality, there are two planned monopolies: one is Don Pippo, and the other is Lfik. Legality must be maintained at all costs, I’m sorry to say. Those two clans bring products from the two best firms in the world, by the way, giving away machines worth $50,000 to $100,000. But the other one also has only a 17% coverage in the world; it’s not that bad, buddy. It’s not that we’re giving it away for free; they supply it to be used by them; come, let’s sit down and discuss this together.”