Corruption Allegations in Zolakar Community Administration

The General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has identified potential corruption issues following media monitoring. An article published on June 26, 2020, by the electronic publication "Hetq" reported that the head of the Zolakar community in the Gegharkunik region had allocated a portion of the former kindergarten area to his brother in 2014, who subsequently leased the land to "G-Telecom" LLC, known as Vivacell-MTS.

Furthermore, the article highlighted that from 2016 onward, several residents working in various positions at the Zolakar community administration—relatives of the community leader—had periodically been residing in the Russian Federation while still receiving salaries.

The publication was forwarded to the Gegharkunik regional prosecutor’s office to initiate measures aimed at clarifying the mentioned circumstances. Following this, the Martuni division of the Armenian police has begun preparing materials under articles 180-181 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia.

It has been determined that an authorized official of the Zolakar community administration illicitly used his position for private gain, selling 568 square meters of community property from the kindergarten area to his brother through auction on September 26, 2014. The property ownership was registered on October 2, 2014. The brother has rented out this land to G-Telecom (Vivacell-MTS) since October 8, 2014, for a monthly fee of 40,000 AMD, causing approximately 2,760,000 AMD in property damage to the Zolakar community.

Additionally, it was found that from 2015 to 2018, this official allowed four employees of the community administration to frequently leave Armenia and not attend work while still drawing salaries. This resulted in the apparent embezzlement of 1,448,832 AMD from the Zolakar community budget.

Given the findings during the material preparation, data has been identified that suggests the presence of criminal characteristics involving misuse of official authority and significant embezzlement. Consequently, a criminal case has been initiated at the Martuni division of the Armenian police under part 1 of article 308 and part 2, points 1 and 3 of article 179 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The investigation is being carried out by the Investigation Committee of Armenia's Martuni division.