Abuse, Bribery, and Document Forgery: Charges Filed Against Four Individuals at Gyumri's N27 Secondary School

The extensive investigation and legal proceedings carried out by the Shirak Regional Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee have unveiled the circumstances surrounding abuses at the state non-commercial organization "Gyumri N27 Secondary School." According to the facts obtained during the investigation, the director of the organization, appointed to the position on November 28, 2011, exercised organizational and administrative powers and, with the assistance of relevant staff, committed fraudulent acts from 2012 to 2019 for personal gain and other motives. This involved creating false documents and misappropriating substantial sums allocated to the school, totaling 6,170,221 AMD, with the accountant of the organization aiding in the misappropriation of 1,528,055 AMD.

In addition, for hiring a resident of Gyumri at the school and performing acts within his authority on behalf of the employees of the school, the director demanded and accepted large sums of money as bribes, both personally and through intermediaries. Under the pretext of not reducing the class hours of relevant staff, the director also incited them to attempt bribery.

The investigation has also revealed that the administrator of the "Gyumri N27 Secondary School," who additionally worked as a teacher in the organization, facilitated the execution of an agreement regarding bribery between the briber and the bribe taker. The same individual attempted to bribe another official to ensure that the number of classes was not reduced, transferring 10,000 AMD under the pretext of maintaining class hours and not combining classes over several academic years.

According to the obtained evidence, in July 2017, at the behest of the school's director, a 63-year-old resident of Gyumri personally gave him a bribe equivalent to 1,099,400 AMD in the form of 2,300 USD for the appointment and hiring of her daughter as a music teacher.

With sufficient evidence collected, the director of the "Gyumri N27 Secondary School" has been charged under multiple articles of the RA Criminal Code, including Article 179 (parts 2, 1, and 3), Article 314 (part 1), among others, with a series of additional charges for the accountant and administrator related to bribery and document forgery. As a preventive measure, a signature not to leave has been selected for the defendants. The preliminary investigation has concluded, and the criminal case has been sent to the prosecutor overseeing the proceedings with an accusatory conclusion.