A Criminal Case Initiated Regarding Alleged Abuse at the Hematological Center

The State Interests Protection Division of the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has conducted an examination of the documents regarding the expenditure purposefulness and justification of state budget funds allocated for hospital care within the framework of free medical assistance guaranteed by the state in the "Professor R. H. Yolyan Hematological Center" LLC. As a result, information has been obtained about alleged criminal abuses. This was reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia.

Specifically, the alleged abuses concern the company’s officials’ failure to adhere to the contractual provisions between the state and the company, partial or complete non-provision of the necessary medications for the treatment of patients based on 45 medical histories, inserting obviously false information or records into official documents, and failing to reimburse 30% of the treatment costs for patients transferred between the company’s divisions during 2018, despite providing false information regarding such reimbursements in the relevant documents. Moreover, there are allegations of inaccurately reflecting the actual volumes of work performed under the state order for the "Emergency Medical Assistance Services" program by falsifying official documents. Additionally, the misrepresentation of reports under the "Emergency Medical Assistance Services" program during 2018 with higher performances and the acquisition of human anti-Rh immunoglobulin from a commercial company at a significantly inflated price under the premise of critical condition despite the absence of such were also noted.

Furthermore, discrepancies were found within the calculated costs for tests conducted in the company’s serology department to ensure the infectious safety of donated blood.

The aforementioned documents containing allegedly false information have been submitted to the Ministry of Health and compensation has been received from the state budget. As a result of these criminal actions by the officials of the medical center, the state sustained damages of approximately 120 million Armenian drams.

Considering that sufficient data has been obtained regarding the alleged misuse of official positions by the officials of the "Professor R. H. Yolyan Hematological Center" LLC leading to significant harm to the state's legal interests and serious consequences, a criminal case has been initiated under part 1 of Article 314 and parts 1 and 2 of Article 308 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The criminal case has been sent to the Investigative Committee of Armenia with an order to conduct an investigation.

Note: A suspect or defendant in an alleged crime is considered innocent until proven guilty by a court judgment that has entered into legal force, in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia.