Government Conceals Amounts of Support Provided to Companies During Coronavirus Periods: 'Hetq'

As part of the first program to neutralize the economic consequences of the coronavirus, 5.3 billion drams were allocated from the state budget. This was announced in response to a query from 'Hetq' by Sedrak Barsheghyan, head of the office of Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, referring to the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy. However, the government does not disclose how this money was distributed or how much each company received.

Under the first program, assistance was provided to businesses through co-financing, refinancing, and subsidizing the interest rates of loans granted by banks and credit organizations. We requested the government to provide the list of companies that received support and the amount of aid each company received, for which the deputy prime minister's office required 30 days. In early November, the office responded verbally and later in writing that only the list of companies receiving support would be made public. The government considers the amount of support to be bank and trade secret.

This is not only the case for the first program but also for all subsequent programs. In other words, funds have been allocated from the state budget in the form of support to businesses, but the government keeps information about the amounts of assistance each company received secret. The response to our inquiry stated, ‘The Ministry of Economy and the Central Bank have informed that this information, according to the law of the Republic of Armenia, contains banking and commercial secrets and cannot be published or granted to other persons without the consent of the business entity or individual.’

Interestingly, although the response refers to Armenian legislation, it does not substantiate which specific law and provision is considered secret. On the Ministry of Economy's website, lists of businesses that received assistance under various programs aimed at mitigating the economic consequences of the coronavirus are published without the amounts of support. There are 12 economic support programs. This does not include social programs, through which individuals received one-time financial assistance.

Only the number of beneficiaries from the first program exceeds 1,000. Moreover, only the names of companies that have given written consent to publish their names as beneficiaries of this support program are included in the list. Notably, this list includes both well-known large businesses and smaller enterprises. Among them are companies belonging to former National Assembly member and businessman Samvel Aleksanyan, including 'Alex Textile,' 'Alex Holding,' 'Alex and Holding,' and 'City' LLC. Interestingly, these companies appear in the list three times, raising questions about whether this is due to the negligence of those compiling and publishing the list or if those companies have benefitted from the program three times.

Among the large and more well-known companies under the first program are 'SAS Group' LLC, which operates the SAS supermarket chain, 'Zigzag' LLC, 'Armenia International Airports' CJSC, 'Zvartnots Handling' LLC, 'Geopromining Gold' LLC, which operates the Sotk gold mine, and the 'Agarak Copper-Molybdenum Combine' LLC, among many others.

In the near future, we will attempt to obtain specific information from the government about the amounts of assistance provided to the mentioned companies, for which the office of Mher Grigoryan may obtain separate permission from these companies without violating, as they indicate, trade and banking secrecy, and provide the information.