The Audit Chamber Uncovers Shocking Facts About the Revolutionaries' Plunder

As Nikol Pashinyan attempts to shift all blame for his failures onto the former "thieves" during his pre-election campaigns, claiming they have stolen soldiers’ bread and army funds for decades, the Audit Chamber's (AC) 2020 annual report on the state budget execution reveals that corrupt practices within Pashinyan's administration are not any less than those of previous regimes.

This indicates that the revolutionaries are also exhibiting a significant appetite for pocketing millions from the budget. It is important to note that the AC does not examine the full expenditures of government departments but rather selects a portion of them for scrutiny.

During 2020, there were employees within Prime Minister Pashinyan’s office who received bonuses exceeding their salaries. Approximately 2.5 billion AMD (2,566,055,800 AMD) was paid to the Prime Minister's office under the category of “salaries and bonuses,” with about half of that amount allocated as salaries and around 363 million AMD as bonuses, while the remainder covered income taxes, vacation pay, and various social payments. The bonuses were at their lowest during October, at the onset of the war, when only one employee was awarded a bonus of 294,000 AMD, while in September, 504 employees received bonuses totaling 56 million AMD. In contrast, December saw a significant increase in both the number of recipients and the size of bonuses, with 500 employees receiving approximately 235 million AMD, averaging about half a million AMD (500,000 AMD) per employee.

Following the defeat in the war, Nikol Pashinyan may have opted for this method to prevent a leak from his team and to retain his staff. The report mentions that bonuses exceeding salary amounts contradict the Armenian law on “Remuneration of Persons Holding State Positions and State Service Positions,” which stipulates that bonuses should not exceed the official monthly salary rate.

The Ministry of Health, while Arsen Torosyan was the minister, displayed similar lavishness in awarding bonuses, with over 56 million AMD paid out to officials. This followed the government's allocation of around 26.5 billion AMD for programs fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to the AC report, no budget was designated for bonuses for the ministry's employees under these programs. “In 2020, the ministry disbursed 56 million AMD as bonuses, without adhering to the government's decision requirements. Approximately 15 million AMD was distributed as bonuses to 11 employees included in the audit sample,” the AC study states.

Five other employees also received bonuses of about 14 million AMD each. The AC emphasizes that, under current law, public servants can be awarded bonuses only from saved funds of the salary fund for special tasks and quality work. However, their investigation revealed that none of the 22 awarded employees had been assigned tasks that would justify the bonuses. Additionally, the bonuses surpassed the legally prescribed limits.

Specifically, Deputy Minister L. N. (Lena Nanushyan) was awarded 7 million 349 thousand AMD instead of the proper 4 million 250 thousand AMD from March to June, resulting in an excess payment of nearly 3 million AMD. Other employees of the ministry received bonuses in a similar manner. The Ministry of Health also made violations in the distribution of vacation benefits. The same L. N. received a vacation benefit of 1 million 761 thousand AMD after not utilizing her entire vacation in 2020 and being paid for another three days from the current year’s vacation entitlement. The AC notes that the law’s requirements were not complied with when recalling her from vacation. There were also unplanned positions, salaries exceeding the stipulated amount by law, and other types of violations.

The Audit Chamber has also examined the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs from January 1 to December 31, 2019, when Zarouhi Batoyan was the minister. Numerous violations were uncovered here as well. For instance, in the “Kharberd Specialized Orphanage,” the audits showed that the quantities of several delivered goods were either above or below the quantities stipulated by the contracts. The purchase of 300 wool sweaters for a contractually defined 220 beneficiaries was deemed a high risk.

The “Mari Izmirlian Orphanage” had set its staffing list with seven more positions than required, resulting in an additional annual salary fund allocation of 14.8 million AMD. In 2019, the orphanage recorded an over-expenditure of 5.2 million AMD in salaries and bonuses. Violations and abuses were also found at the Vardenis and Yerevan's number one orphanages, where almost everywhere the sanitary-hygienic condition of the institutions was reported as deplorable. More disgraceful facts emerged, such as a citizen being prosthetized two days after death, state programs providing hearing aids and wheelchairs to individuals absent from the country, and overpayments of 59 thousand AMD for prosthetic expenses compared to what was mandated by the competitive program specifications and contracts. There was also an over-expenditure of over 16 million AMD on programs intended for the homeless, along with irregular real estate transactions carried out in the names of orphanage residents with violations in the cadastre. According to the institution’s assessment, the damage inflicted on the state through social assistance alone amounted to 3.4 billion AMD.

The Chamber has also uncovered that the Ministry of High-Tech Industry in 2019 allocated a grant of 750 thousand dollars to the NGO UITE for the IT World Congress, intending for the NGO to return the same sum from funds raised from the conference participants. However, the NGO requested not to return the amount, and the government granted this request, inexplicably forgiving the debt.

These presented facts are only the results of a few sectoral studies of several government departments. In the near future, we will present further discoveries from the Audit Chamber that indicate that the authorities’ claims about being free from corruption are mere legends woven to deceive people.