Spending of Russian loans to be under Armenian and Russian surveillance agencies’ intense scrutiny

YEREVAN, October 17. /ARKA/. Armenian Control Chamber and Russian Audit Chamber will conduct joint inspections to see how Russian the loans extended to Armenia are being spent, Armenian Control Chamber Chairman Ishkhan Zakaryan told journalists on Wednesday after the two country’s supervisory agencies met for session in Yerevan. 

The agencies signed a new cooperation program for 2013-2015. 

“Today we made very important decisions – we will scrutinize the spending of the Russian loans extended to Armenia,” Zakaryan said. 

His Russian counterpart, Sergey Stepashin, on his side, informed the meeting participants that this initiative had come from the Armenian side. 

“A few joint groups will be set up as part of the program, including those in charge of the scrutiny over Russian loans,” he said.

Issues related to regulation of Armenia-Russia food imports and exports were discussed at the session as well. 

On May 20, 2009, Russian and Armenian finance ministers, Aleksey Kudrin and Tigran Davtyan, sealed an agreement on a $500-million 15-year loan to be extended to Armenia at LIBOR plus 3% interest rate with a four-year grace period. Armenia has received it in a single tranche. 

The money is lent for economic development, which includes the recovery of quake-stricken areas, onlending to small and mid-scale businesses and creating of a stabilization fund for implementing anti-crisis measures. -0-