40 Million Dollars Embezzlement Detected in the Municipality After the Revolution

The State Audit Office, under the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, has conducted checks in the Yerevan City Hall and discovered significant violations during the years 2018-2021, as reported by Radar Armenia.

It has been revealed that during this period, the total damage inflicted on the state amounts to approximately 16 billion Armenian drams, or about 40 million US dollars.

The identified embezzlement cases pertain to nearly all sectors of Yerevan's municipal economy, including the issuance of construction permits, property tax payments, and legalization of unauthorized constructions, among others.

For thousands of vehicles, more than 250 million drams of property tax amounts were not registered or collected, and over 550 vehicles were reported as sold, leading to the nullification of property tax obligations.

Of particular note among the violations recorded in the construction permit issuance process is that about 82% of the total permits were issued late, and in cases of 10% of the refusals, citizens were not informed of the reasons for the denial.

During the said years, a total of 3,346 unauthorized structures were legalized through decisions made by the Yerevan Mayor, with fines stipulated by law not being applied to 2,491 of these cases, resulting in a loss of over 650 million drams in potential revenue for the city budget.

There are instances where construction permits have been delayed by as much as 255 days, while others have been granted on the same day the application was submitted. In 1,054 cases, extensions were granted for construction permits, and for 542 of those, no administrative penalties were imposed, resulting in a total of unapplied fines reaching over 6 billion Armenian drams.

According to the findings of the State Audit Office, renovation and patching work on various streets in Yerevan have been carried out with deficiencies or have not been executed at all, yet additional payments have been made for them.

It is noteworthy that a large amount of fuel has been allocated to city hall employees under the pretext of "performing service duties," without justification regarding how much fuel each employee required for fulfilling those duties. Interestingly, fuel has also been dispensed for employees on vacation.

According to our information, the audit also revealed that in several cases, instead of public auctions, there were direct sales of land plots, which were significantly below market and auction prices.

Below are some noteworthy data points regarding the scope of the embezzlements:

• For 4,747 vehicles, property tax amounting to 269 million drams was not registered and collected.
• 567 vehicles were reported as disposed of, resulting in 59 million drams of property tax being nullified.
• Out of 6,932 construction permits, 5,716 (82.5%) were issued beyond the prescribed deadlines.
• 3346 unauthorized structures were legalized, with fines not being applied in 2,491 cases.
• From 2019-2021, contractor organizations did not provide 50,501.5 cubic meters of asphalt to the administrative districts of Yerevan, valued at around 288 million drams.
• For unjustified or apparently unperformed 23,827.9 square meters of asphalt concrete resurfacing work, 84 million drams were overpaid.
• From 2018-2021, approximately 160 million Armenian drams of 447,050 liters of fuel were issued to municipal employees' personal vehicles for service purposes.
• During 2019-2021, in 14 cases, employees on vacation were recorded as having 960 liters of fuel issued during that period.
• From 2016-2021, only 496 thousand euros were spent from the allocated funds for the "Yerevan Solid Waste Management" program, while work for the establishment of a new landfill compliant with European standards on an area of approximately 32 hectares adjacent to the Nubarashen landfill is simply not being carried out.

For more details, refer to the original source.