Violations at the National Center for the Supply of Medicines and Medical Devices: State Audit Office

The State Audit Office of Armenia, within the framework of its monitoring functions as mandated by law, has conducted an oversight at the State Non-Commercial Organization "National Center for the Supply of Medicines and Medical Devices" based on an assignment from the head of the Service. The audit focused on the ordering, receipt, registration, and distribution processes of medicines and medical supplies imported into Armenia from 2020 to 2022.

The investigation also looked into the destruction process of certain medications, during which it was recorded that medications kept in storage by the Organization were not accounted for approximately three months, and their distribution was not carried out. As a result, medicines worth 1,044,192,240 Armenian Drams became expired and, according to the submitted documents, were subsequently destroyed.

It is noteworthy that the majority of medications and medical-related goods stored at another warehouse of the Organization were not registered according to established procedures and were not reflected in the Organization's balance sheet. Furthermore, during the inventory conducted in the warehouse, the investigative team discovered medicines with a total value of 71,095,080 Armenian Drams (whose expiration dates primarily fell in 2022), which had been under the Organization’s control since 2020-2021 but had not been registered or distributed, thereby becoming expired.

During the investigation, it was also found that certain products were missing from the Organization's warehouse, and there were no documents confirming their exit. Specifically, the following items were found to be absent: 12,000 units of "Cotton Swabs for Analysis" and 6,000 "Sample Vials." According to the Organization’s re-evaluation, these items were valued at a total of 4,200,000 Armenian Drams.

Information containing signs of apparent criminal activity and relevant materials have been sent to the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia to ensure further action.

Simultaneously, during the investigation, a review was conducted of transactions carried out between the Organization and the "Academic Emil Gabrielyan Center for Medicines and Medical Technologies" from January 1, 2020, to July 19, 2022. Throughout this process, discrepancies were revealed involving the disappearance of 34 types of medicines valued at a total of 201,495 US Dollars, which were not returned to the Organization by the Center without legal grounds, and were simultaneously untraceable within the Center itself.

The State Audit Office also reported that based on the information provided regarding the circumstances of the apparent criminal acts, a criminal case has been initiated under Article 277, Part 2, Clause 2 of the Armenian Criminal Code by the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

The State Audit Office of Armenia is consistently exercising its powers to disclose and eliminate the ineffective management of state resources, as well as possible violations of Armenian legislation, ensuring the implementation of oversight powers by the Prime Minister of Armenia.