After Pashinyan's "Hanging Operation," the State Has Lost About $120 Million in the School Construction Sector, Narek Karapetyan

Narek Karapetyan, Vice President of the Tashir Group of Companies, in a post on his Facebook page, addressed the construction of schools and roads, noting that certain missteps by the government have led to enormous financial losses.

"Everything was progressing normally until 2020; schools were built through loan programs. But after the Prime Minister's visit to the schools, the infamous 'hanging operation' took place. Pashinyan pulled the hanger, it fell, and he severely reprimanded the head of the Urban Development Committee, dismissing him from his position. Following that show, in just one month, the prices in tenders increased by one million dollars per school," he said.

According to Karapetyan, before this, a school was built for about 900 million drams, but subsequently, the same project began to cost 1.4 billion drams. "If previously, the construction and improvement of one square meter cost around $900, then after the 'hanging operation,' it became $1,500. In reality, nothing changed in the projects. When the state began to exert more pressure on entrepreneurs through security forces, they started calculating their risks and raised prices. From that day until today, 128 school tenders have taken place, and the prices per square meter have remained in the range of $1,500 to $1,600, instead of the former $900. This means that the state has lost about $120 million in the school construction sector alone," he stated.

Karapetyan emphasized that this is just one example, while similar poor decisions have caused the state budget to incur losses of tens of millions of dollars: "There are hundreds of examples where the state has suffered losses of tens of millions of dollars due to the erroneous decisions of public managers. But no one is held accountable for them," he stressed.