The Public Services Regulatory Commission to Discuss Revoking HETC License

The Public Services Regulatory Commission will discuss the issue of revoking the license of the "Armenian Electric Networks" LLC during its meeting tomorrow. This was reported by Babken Pipoyan, president of the NGO "Informed and Protected Consumer."

"This is seemingly the last act in the process of the stateization of HETC. Why seemingly? Because this process will still 'pass through' many local and international courts and arbitrations for a long time. For me, the outcome of the meeting is predictable. Let me explain why. I have been engaged in the protection of consumer rights since 2013. Of course, my activity has varied throughout the years, but during this time we have had hundreds, if not thousands, of discussions in various ministries, inspectorates, commissions, and other public administration bodies. The Public Services Regulatory Commission has been an exception; it has seemed to be one of the closest in terms of functions. In more than 12 years, I have been to the Commission twice, both out of necessity. The first time was nearly ten years ago when we appealed to the Competition Protection Commission to discuss issues related to communication operators, and after reviewing the case, the Commission clarified that, of course, there was a misleading element, but the economic operators were not at fault as they acted according to the Commission's decision. The second time was because my colleague Melita Hakobyan requested my participation in a closed discussion, and out of respect, I couldn’t refuse.

The absence of interactions with the Commission has been due to one reason: I have always thought and continue to believe that this body does not operate based on the protection of consumer interests but is simply an institution that packages political decisions with its resolutions. That is why the outcome of tomorrow's meeting is predictable for me. Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from presenting several questions that I would like to be raised during the session. In the context of other political realities, would the issue of license suspension be discussed in cases of similar violations, or would the Commission limit itself to administrative liability? What have been the precedents so far? Public service providers in Armenia have never impressed consumers with the quality of their services, and based on the principle of choosing between bad and worse, which company has been more poorly managed and has violated consumer rights more: the state-owned HPP or HETC? According to your employee's public speech, last year alone you received over 2000 complaints regarding Veolia's water services. Have you thought about how many complaints and violations there will be if the state tries to independently ascertain the number of violations within Veolia? Essentially, you are the only body controlling the sector. Will you 'control' a state-owned enterprise or a private company more freely to protect the consumer's rights? Lastly, it is very unfortunate that data has been lost from the servers. Why haven't the law enforcement bodies ascertained whether this was done intentionally or not? Thus, not only could they have been subject to criminal liability but also legitimized your suspension decision. After all, for years you were praising HETC when we raised the issues within HETC; at least a new revelation would have emerged to 'clear the air,'" he wrote.