New Details on Arrests at Yerevan Municipality

The National Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia has disclosed that a criminal case initiated as a result of operational and investigative measures has revealed that individuals holding leadership positions in Yerevan Municipality engaged in illegal activities at the expense of representatives of construction companies. With the assistance of former officials of the municipality, they received a total of 2.5 million AMD in bribes to facilitate favorable administrative acts required by law.

The investigation established that during 2024, several representatives of construction companies had reached agreements with two former officials of Yerevan Municipality. They colluded to offer bribes to municipal officials to promote the issuance of favorable administrative acts for their benefit. According to the agreements, the accomplices organized the process by transferring the bribe amounts to the deputy head and the head of the relevant department of the municipality.

Specifically, representatives of construction companies paid approximately 2,500,000 AMD in bribes through the accomplices to municipal officials in order to prevent the registration of violations committed during the construction of residential buildings and to illegally obtain completion acts. Furthermore, it was established that requests made three times by a construction company regarding the issuance of a construction permit for providing electricity to a residential building were illegally rejected by the head of the relevant department of the municipality. Consequently, the developer was compelled to resort to illegal actions, offering a significant bribe to the municipal service head through the aforementioned former officials to obtain the legally required construction permit.

Subsequently, the official who accepted the bribe intervened with the head of the previously rejecting department to favorably consider the request submitted by the developer, resulting in written approval for the fourth request made by the construction company.

The investigation also uncovered instances where officials from the Arabkir administrative district demanded and received bribes in exchange for not recording administrative violations they discovered.

A total of 12 individuals have been charged with accepting a significant bribe, assisting in bribery, giving bribes, and abusing official powers, including three officials from Yerevan Municipality and the former officials who assisted them. Measures were taken against four of these individuals as a precaution, including detention for four, home arrest for one, and combined measures of prohibition from leaving the country and suspension from office for the officials from the Arabkir administrative district.

The investigation has been completed. The prosecutor has confirmed the indictment, and the case materials have been forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia.