Official Mismanagement in the Property Leasing Process of ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC

The State Interests Protection Department of the RA Prosecutor General's Office has examined the documents received from the RA State Revenue Committee regarding the process of leasing the property owned by ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC, located on I. Gasparyan Street in Yerevan. To ensure a thorough investigation, relevant documents and information were also requested and obtained from the RA Cadastre and Civil Aviation Committee.

As a result, factual data has been obtained indicating that in March 2012 ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC leased a portion of its property on I. Gasparyan Street under a lease agreement with a company (referred to as Company N) for a monthly rent of 160,000 AMD for areas measuring 21.2 sqm, 17.1 sqm, and 6.3 sqm on the first floor. According to the contract, the lessee was obliged to timely pay the rent for the leased premises, as well as the fees for consumed electricity, water, and other utilities. The lessor was granted the right to sublease without the written consent of the lessor.

The term of the contract was set to expire on March 23, 2015, but it was subsequently extended twice until March 23, 2021, without any change in rent. From 2012 to 2019, the leasing company entered into sublease agreements with other companies, raising the rent from 210,000 AMD to 425,000 AMD each time.

The sublease agreements reveal that Company N received approximately 7.3 million AMD from April 2012 to March 2015, around 4.6 million AMD from March 2015 to April 2016, approximately 13.3 million AMD from April 2016 to August 2018, and around 8.1 million AMD from August 2018 to March 2020, totaling around 33.3 million AMD. However, during the same period, ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC only received a total of 15,406,000 AMD from Company N.

The fact that these premises were burdened with sublease during the entire lease period indicates a demand for them, and the rent specified in sublease contracts reflects their actual market value, which is around 17,894,000 AMD more than what was stated in the lease agreements by the responsible officials of ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC.

According to Article 620, Part 1 of the RA Civil Code, the lessee has the right to sublease the property only with the consent of the lessor unless otherwise provided for by this code or other laws or legal acts. However, in this case, there was never an agreement made with ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC regarding the sublease of the premises, as the terms established in the contract included subleasing without the written consent of the lessor, in violation of legal requirements.

It has also been revealed that the estimated amounts of utility fees for these premises were included in the rent calculations, and out of the 15,406,000 AMD paid over 94 months, approximately 887,454 AMD was directed towards utility payments. However, according to the signed lease agreement, these were separate payments and should not have been included in the rent due to the lessor.

This means that from 2012 to the present, the officials of ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC have misused their official positions to grant the property at a price approximately 17.9 million AMD cheaper than its actual rental value while incorporating utility payments into the rent, effectively lowering the rent paid by about 887,454 AMD. As a result, the state-owned ‘HayAeronavigatsia’ LLC received significantly less money than the real value, causing severe consequences for the state.

Following the investigation, a criminal case has been initiated at the State Interests Protection Department of the RA Prosecutor General's Office under the features of Article 308, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code. The case has been sent to the RA Investigative Committee for further investigation.