I am ready to testify at any moment. Arsen Torosyan

Former Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan has issued a statement regarding the actions taken within the framework of the criminal case initiated by the Anti-Corruption Committee concerning the COVID-19 pandemic efforts, which we present below.

“I would not have wanted to address the situation in this format, but I am compelled to do so considering the press release issued by the Anti-Corruption Committee yesterday, as well as certain phenomena related to it.

1. As I have repeatedly mentioned and demonstrated during discussions in the National Assembly, the audit of the COVID-19 pandemic conducted by the Accounts Chamber was carried out by individuals who are not professional and lack expertise, in the absence of numerous data, which they themselves admit. Nevertheless, conclusions were drawn that do not withstand any criticism. To clarify how the audit was conducted, I want to remind you that during the most intense period of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government was investing all its resources to combat it both in healthcare and socio-economic terms, opposition factions in the National Assembly did not spare efforts to throw mud on those actions, also sowing doubts among the public about the effectiveness of these actions. Finally, the Enlightened Armenia faction in the National Assembly initiated the creation of a commission to investigate various aspects of the fight against the pandemic (to be honest, I do not even know what exactly). The commission's work was led by the Enlightened Armenia faction MP Arkadi Khachatryan, and I do not know much about the commission's activities, although I have publicly stated multiple times that I am ready to attend the sessions and answer questions.

Nevertheless, the commission turns to the Accounts Chamber, which was then led by Levon Yolyan, and the audit is entrusted to Accounts Chamber member Abram Bakhchagulyan. The political backgrounds of Yolyan and Bakhchagulyan are known to all, and the 'results' of the audit correspond to that.

2. The audit is sent to the prosecutor's office, as usual, and the prosecutor's office forwards it to the Anti-Corruption Committee, which initiates criminal proceedings based on it.

3. Now, let me address the strange phenomena that occurred during this proceeding, which give grounds to suspect its impartiality. During the proceedings, numerous directors of medical centers dealing with COVID-19, various officials of the Ministry of Health, doctors, and patients are questioned. The oddity is that to this day, neither the previous minister, that is, me, nor the current minister (to my knowledge) have been questioned. My numerous attempts to ensure that I am also interrogated have been in vain, and I see a trend here, as after my interrogation, the fabricated thesis that someone intentionally neglected their duties would completely collapse. After all, the two orders mentioned in the statement by the Committee were issued by me, and no one could better understand the purposes and logic behind them than I could. One of the orders pertains to the organization of COVID-19 efforts, while the other concerns the discharge of patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

It is also peculiar that until yesterday, Gevorg Simonyan, who was arrested yesterday, had not been questioned either. All of this gives reason to presume that the Committee is more interested in publicly targeting those who carried out that heavy work rather than uncovering the circumstances of the case. The failure to interrogate me, the current minister, and Simonyan cannot be explained in any other way, while the choice of preventive measure itself gives grounds to suppose that it is motivated by a desire to substantiate the fabricated theses by keeping the defendants in custody.

4. It is also strange that the preamble of the Anti-Corruption Committee's press release states that the investigation has established that “the government of the Republic of Armenia allocated more than 26 billion AMD for the implementation of complex measures for the prevention, control, and treatment of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which was entirely funded from the government's reserve fund.” It is interesting how this publicly available information was established through the investigation. Is it merely a special addition to give their work “seriousness,” making readers more enraged towards the “meladryals”? You are mistaken, esteemed colleagues; 26 billion was allocated by the government only in 2020, approximately the same amount in 2021, but what that has to do with this particular accusation is unknown to anyone.

5. Now let me address the specific accusations regardless of the individuals involved as defendants. Considering the state of emergency and the pandemic, one of the deputy ministers was assigned, by the relevant order of the Minister of Health, to coordinate the expansion, organization, and financing of treatment for patients with COVID-19, while other deputies were assigned other functions (anti-epidemic measures, procurement of medications and medical equipment, etc.). The function of coordinating financing does not imply such supervisory functions that would include actions to check at that moment whether all patients in all medical facilities were hospitalized in ordinary wards or in intensive care units as stated in the reports but only implied ensuring documentary compliance and providing financing based on that. During the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, several thousand patients were being treated simultaneously in medical facilities, and the work that the Committee expected (of course, it is not clear on what legal basis) was physically impossible to carry out. The Committee staff may have forgotten how the country was fighting the pandemic during those days. Moreover, the compliance of the information presented in health financing with reality is always checked later when audits are conducted on medical facilities, and if violations are detected, they are recovered into the state budget. No deputy minister or other official has been charged because of that, as such a function did not exist. The same situation applies to the well-known case of Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, where funds have been transferred from the state budget to the Medical Center based on reports for hundreds of patients who were not treated at the Medical Center. There is no official charged in that case since the system implements its audit functions based on uncovered audits, while financing is carried out based on the received reports.

6. Additionally, I would like to quote a passage from the Anti-Corruption Committee's statement: “In particular, at least 8 doctors from the medical organization organized by B. Sh. included false information in the medical histories of 385 patients who have received inpatient treatment in the somatic department from July 2020 to December 2021, indicating that these patients were treated in the intensive care unit, and subsequently submitted false reports to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia. Based on the presented false reports, particularly large sums of 119,005,000 AMD were unjustifiably transferred to the 'Medline Clinic' LLC for services not actually rendered.” This means that according to the Anti-Corruption Committee, all officials of the ministry should distinguish 'falsified' documents. Furthermore, the statement does not even mention an evident falsification, as it is commonly accepted to classify any responsibility before assigning it. Cases of submitting false documents and reports are numerous in public and private relations, however, no official is arrested unless their guilt in committing that falsification is proven, as it is natural that a public official cannot priori distinguish between a false and a non-false report unless a special audit or examination is conducted, not to mention cases where the matter does not concern obvious forgery. From the Committee's statement, it is clear that Gevorg Simonyan's guilt in committing forgery is based on assumptions. It is even laughable to formulate this as “out of personal interest not to worsen former business relationships,” as essentially nothing else lies at the basis of the accusation.

7. The next fabricated thesis concerns the triage of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and the triage of patients receiving treatment in a hospital. Apparently, the Committee did not want or could not understand the actual function of that group. These groups were created by my order when, due to the large number of infected persons, there was no more room in hospitals to hospitalize new patients, and the groups had to visit all medical facilities according to a schedule (considering that there were over 30 medical facilities, these visits would occur every 2-3 weeks) and work with the medical staff on the histories of the disease and examine the patients to discharge them to free beds for new patients. These groups had no financial or financial supervisory functions and could not have them, and blaming people for something for which they were not responsible and could not be is at least ridiculous, if not strange from a legal perspective. In simple terms, these groups were created to free up beds and have properly carried out their functions.

8. It was also very strange to give operational information to the press about all investigative actions, which are essentially closed, which again raises the question that all this is more aimed at targeting specific individuals than revealing the truth. It created the impression that the 'Hraparak' newspaper has an extraordinary (or possibly even a permanent) correspondent in the Committee. The same impression was formed from the urgency of yesterday's actions, especially since Gevorg Simonyan, while being constantly available, had not been questioned beforehand.

9. A separate question is also the prosecutorial supervision over these proceedings. Did the supervising prosecutor not wonder why I, the current minister, or Gevorg Simonyan have not been questioned so far, considering I issued those orders, and what “was discovered” during the proceedings occurred between July 2020 and December 2021? Or does the supervising prosecutor have any insights regarding that? Whether this supervisory function is either fictitious or is merely aimed at establishing the accusation at all costs, regardless of the existence of evidence, is a pressing issue. Our law enforcement system has not shed the former Soviet stereotype that the absence of evidence leading to a quick termination of proceedings is the result of poor work by the inquiry body, and therefore, these must move forward at all costs. Now I understand why courts often reject the motions of inquiry bodies. Motions of such quality could not have other outcomes.

I hope justice will prevail, and if there are guilty parties, they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and if not, those who unjustly accuse will receive appropriate public and professional evaluations.

And I want to publicly reiterate that I am ready at any time to provide testimony in this case.

P.S. The arduous work of a whole system over the past two years, during which tens of thousands of patients have been treated, and the overwhelming majority have been saved, is worth the price of pouring this fabricated accusation down the drain for our country. In no new challenge will thousands of healthcare workers and hundreds of healthcare managers throw themselves into combating that challenge as they did during COVID and the war.”