Motion Filed for Arrest of Sisian Mayor

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia is conducting an inquiry within the Main Department for Investigating Particularly Important Cases to clarify all circumstances related to the alleged abuse of office and official forgery by the Mayor of Sisian.

Initial investigations have revealed that Arthur Sargsyan, holding the position of Mayor of Sisian since October 7, 2016, has allegedly misused his official position for personal gain and other interests. Specifically, at Sargsyan's initiative, in December 2016, the Sisian Municipal Government organized the installation of a heating system in the building of the "Emma Asyan Children's Music School," a non-profit organization established for community needs, using approximately 10,000,000 AMD from municipal funds.

According to investigations, prior to initiating the procurement procedures, it was predetermined through preliminary agreement between the mayor and his brother that the works would be carried out by a company owned by the latter. Moreover, the director of this company personally reviewed the project documents before the announcement of the competition.

Subsequently, to formalize the procurement process, a tender evaluation committee was established by the mayor’s decision in 2016, consisting of municipal government employees. The procurement invitation was published on the electronic procurement system “armeps.am”; however, due to obstacles encountered in the participation of the mayor's brother's company, a company owned by the family's godfather submitted a bid, proposing a price of 10,230,000 AMD.

On the day of the bid opening, December 26, 2016, another company submitted a bid offering a lower price of 6,598,950 AMD. Aware of the likelihood of losing the competition due to the lower bid, Sargsyan allegedly instructed the committee secretary to create artificial reasons for rejecting the lower bid.

Members of the evaluation committee, in a group interest to avoid contradicting the mayor, unreasonably rejected the bid from the company proposing the lower amount and deemed the submission of the demand for payment by the winning company as inadequate, claiming that certain necessary notations were missing. However, according to the competition invitation, these notations were to be filled by the evaluation committee itself.

Thus, the evaluation committee rejected the lower bid without lawful justification, deliberately ignoring the shortcomings in the payment demand of the company linked to the mayor’s family. As a result, the community discovered that the company with a higher bid, in connection to the mayor, was declared the winner and a contract was signed on December 27, 2016, for the work outlined above.

Only two days later, on December 29, 2016, an official document was created by a competent municipal official, falsely documenting the acceptance of work conducted during the contractual period, thereby reflecting the fact that the contract was handed over to the client. Afterward, Mayor Arthur Sargsyan, driven by personal and selfish motives, allegedly drafted and verified an official document containing false and misleading information regarding the installation of the heating system for the needs of the Sisian community’s "Emma Asyan Children's Music School," despite the fact that the work was conducted in January 2017.

Due to the abuse of office by Mayor Arthur Sargsyan and members of the tender commission, substantial harm was caused to the community’s rights and legal interests. Based on the official false document prepared by the mayor, 10,230,000 AMD was unjustifiably disbursed from the municipal budget to the contractor, resulting in 3,631,050 AMD in property damage to the community. Sargsyan has been charged under parts 2 of Article 308 and part 1 of Article 314 of the RA Criminal Code. A motion has been filed in court requesting his arrest as a preventive measure.