Former Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Charged with Corruption Involving Sanitek Officials

The Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia has announced that, on its own initiative, a decision was made on August 7, 2023, to initiate public criminal prosecution against the former deputy mayor of Yerevan, V.N., for abuse of official powers and accepting particularly large bribes.

According to the investigative findings in the corruption case, V.N., who served as the Deputy Mayor of Yerevan from January 20, 2012, to October 29, 2018, misused his official powers by evaluating bids from participating companies as sufficient, despite the fact that they did not meet the criteria for procurement of long-term waste collection and sanitary cleaning services announced for the western and eastern parts of Yerevan. As a result, the companies “Sanitek s.a.r.l.,” the Armenian branch of “Sanitek,” and “Sanitek International” were declared winners.

Subsequently, these companies were unable to deliver the contracted services properly due to a lack of technical, financial, professional, and labor resources. However, the Yerevan City Municipality paid an additional 3 billion 200 million AMD for inadequate, improper, and in some cases undelivered services, inadvertently causing severe consequences.

Additionally, V.N. accepted bribes from officials of the cited company, receiving an offer for a particularly large property benefit for his father. Specifically, in 2015, V.N. leased properties registered under his father, H.N., to the aforementioned companies at a rental rate that significantly exceeded the previous rental payments, amounting to 436 million 472 thousand 280 AMD.

On October 3, 2019, the contracts for waste collection and sanitary cleaning services with “Sanitek s.a.r.l.” and “Sanitek International” were unilaterally terminated. As a result, V.N. effectively received around 141 million 273 thousand 953 AMD in property benefit for his father, H.N., as another form of advantage from the bribe for the years 2015-2019.

A notice states that a person charged with a crime is assumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedures established by the Criminal Procedure Code and by a court decision that has entered into legal force.