Criminal Case Initiated Against Officials for Failure to Fulfill Duties

A criminal case has been initiated against officials of the "Hayantar" SNCO on the grounds of misuse of their official positions in contradiction to the interests of the service, resulting in severe consequences due to negligence. This information was provided by the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia.

According to the statement, the officials of "Hayantar" failed to perform their duties, which led to the "High Voltage Electric Networks" company not meeting its contractual obligations for forestation. In particular, 11 contracts for the servitude of forest lands were signed between "Hayantar" and HVEN on December 21, 2018, for a duration of one year.

Under the contracts, an area of 0.76295 hectares of forested land was allocated to HVEN in the territory of Zaghkashat, Laqvar for the construction of roads intended for the installation of supports, passage of overhead power lines, and their subsequent operation as part of the “Replacement of Overhead Lines” project. In return, the company was obligated to submit a program for restoring the damage caused to the forestry within three months, including a project for implementing forestation works at least twice the area provided for utilization.

A project was prepared for the area of 1.6 hectares allocated in the Vahagni Forestry for forestation, with the cost of the forestry works amounting to 12,912,000 AMD.

However, it was found that the officials of "Hayantar" had placed no obligation on HVEN to implement a forestation program based on the contracts signed between 2018 and 2020. In other words, forestry work was not carried out on the 1.6-hectare plot worth 12,912,003 AMD.

A criminal case has been initiated under the second part of Article 308 of the Criminal Code (abuse of official authority). The case has been sent to the Investigative Committee for further investigation.