Was There a Crime, or Did the Chinese Decide to Make a Pre-Election Gift? Mesrop Arakelyan on Chinese Buses

Mesrop Arakelyan, co-founder of the 'Country of Living' party, has addressed the issue of bus procurement by the Yerevan municipality on his Facebook page.

At today's government meeting, a decision was made to amend the contract for the acquisition of buses signed by the municipality last year, whereby the price of the already procured buses was reduced from 44.2 million drams to 36.9 million drams. Consequently, the 150 buses acquired for a total of 6.6 billion drams will be supplemented by an additional 30 buses.

It appears that a Chinese company 'decided' to gift 30 buses to Yerevan without charge a year later. In reality, this gift is a consequence of my post three months ago, where I highlighted an apparent misuse of 1.4 billion drams due to the devaluation of currency, which coincidentally amounts to the actual value of the 30 buses.

Now the question becomes more pressing: was there any crime involved in all this, or did the Chinese truly decide to make a pre-election gift to the municipality a year later? I will personally address this issue in three months,” he wrote.