If You Want to Win, Show Some Respect: The Odyssey of Police Tenders

According to the newspaper "Hraparak", while Nikol Pashinyan announces that corruption in tenders has been eradicated, scandalous details have emerged regarding several competitions within the police force. This involves the leading global companies "Informatic Solution" and "Intelligent Solution", which, perhaps believing the promise that there is no corruption in Armenia, decided to conduct business in our country.

Having won several tenders for the preparation and supply of driver’s licenses and identification cards, they have encountered serious issues. The lawyer representing their interests, Gagik Khachikyan, reports that after the tenders, an individual named Sarmen contacted the company's management and stated that “the rules are different; to win in tenders and operate normally afterwards, it is necessary to show appropriate respect.”

Following this, artificial obstacles began to arise in the tenders, such as changes to required technical specifications, complications, refusal to accept orders, and the company that offered an unrealistically low price won the tender, then withdrew from the order, resulting in the cancellation of the tender, and a sole sourcing process was carried out. This scenario has repeated itself several times, and every time Sarmen appeared with his warnings, then offered to take 5 million drams to eliminate the obstacles, otherwise he would “cut the company off from the tenders”. The lawyer states that they have contacted law enforcement, but to no avail.

Khachikyan promised to present a more detailed account of the entire chain of violations soon, while he brings this situation to the attention of the Prime Minister, the Chief Prosecutor, and the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee.

Details can be found in today’s issue of the newspaper.