60,000 Brooms Gone Missing: Yerevan Waste Management Agency Files Lawsuit

The Yerevan Waste Collection and Sanitation municipal agency has filed a lawsuit in Yerevan's Civil Court demanding that individual entrepreneur Arthur Ananyan return 60,000 brooms that were handed over for safekeeping on October 7, 2023. This information was reported by Factor.am based on the judicial information system "Datalex."

In an interview with the media, Arthur Ananyan asserted that he has returned the brooms to the agency. “They claim that we haven't returned the brooms entrusted to us, but we returned the entire lot just as it was given to us. If we hadn’t returned the brooms, how could sanitation in Yerevan have been carried out?” he stated.

According to the director of the municipal agency, they do not have storage facilities and are unable to warehouse the products. As a result, they announce a tender, and the winning company stores the items in its premises. At any time, the agency can approach that company to demand their return. Ananyan noted that since 2019, from the inception of the agency, they have been storing these items for them.

“We have worked with the agency from its founding until the point when Sasha Katvalyan was appointed director and decided to unilaterally terminate the contract. We have filed four lawsuits against the agency. Sasha Katvalyan has created artificial obstacles for us to 'do his job,'” Ananyan said in a follow-up conversation.

Sasha Katvalyan, appointed as the director of the municipal agency on January 29 this year, has contradicted this in an interview with the media, claiming that Ananyan had monopolistic control in the agency and won all the announced tenders. “Every month a tender worth 24 million drams was announced, and the same person, Arthur Ananyan, won. The agency was obliged to announce a tender for the entire year's volume, in which case a guarantee would have been provided, as the announced tender would exceed 25 million drams. This person was created a 'greenhouse' environment; for instance, last year there were 11 tenders, totaling 264 million drams. So if you know the volume, why announce tenders in parts and ensure the same person wins?” Katvalyan elaborated.

The agency director stated that there is no record of a transfer-acceptance act. “He has a safekeeping agreement with us since last year, won the tender, and shortly after signing the contract, all the money was transferred to him, but he did not deliver the product. I came in as the director, opened what is called warehousing in accounting, where it is noted that 240,000 brooms are in safekeeping under Arthur Ananyan's name, but I see that there is no transfer-acceptance act that would confirm he ever returned these brooms. I tell him that the brooms were given to him for safekeeping, return them; he refuses, so I go to court demanding the return of these brooms worth 96 million drams.

Approximately two months ago, the acting head of the oversight department of the Yerevan mayor’s office, Anna Gevorkyan, reported alleged abuses in the municipal agency. This investigation was conducted in the agency from 2022 to 2023. According to the report, items have been issued from the warehouse of the Yerevan Waste Collection and Sanitation without proper documentation, unfit vehicles were used as spare parts, and instead of being repaired, they have turned into metal scrap, and thousands of trash bins have not been documented.

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