A number of purchases worth over 3 billion drams have been cancelled at ENA
YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. Four purchases totaling over 3 billion drams were canceled at the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) CJSC by the government-appointed interim manager Romanos Petrosyan, the company's press service reported.
According to the law, all powers of the licensee are handed over to the interim manager from the moment of his/her appointment and throughout his/her activity.
The statement says, "The suspension of these purchases by the interim manager is due to a number of systemic problems identified in the procedures related to these processes in the company, such as discriminatory technical conditions, non-inclusive and non-transparent processes, and biased approaches to preliminary pricing. The statement says that within the framework of these procurement processes, it was planned to purchase electrical equipment, meters, and cables, as well as several services.
It is noted that, at the current stage, work is underway to improve the procurement processes of the necessary equipment and materials for ENA CJSC, as well as to organize and develop tools that ensure the transparency, objectivity, and inclusiveness of their implementation. Procurement procedures are being improved systematically, and only after they are implemented in the company will procurement processes be launched in strict accordance with the standards established by Armenian legislation regulating the service sector and the requirements of current legal acts.
"Canceling procurement processes at this stage and resuming them in the near future is linked to urgent technical and energy needs, as well as urgent medium-term work. Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC reports that the planned procurement processes will be launched according to schedule starting in the first ten days of August," the statement says.
The owner of the ENA, Russia-based billionaire Samvel Karapetyan was arrested in June on accusations of calling for a power seizure after he publicly supported the Armenian Apostolic Church in its conflict with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s administration. Following the arrest, Pashinyan declared it was time to nationalize Karapetyan’s company, Electric Netwroks of Armenia, and the Armenian parliament passed laws allowing the state to seize it.
In response, the Karapetyan family filed a lawsuit at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), citing a 1995 bilateral investment treaty between Armenia and Cyprus.
The SCC ruled that Armenia must halt any efforts to enforce the new legislation or confiscate the company, warning that such actions would hinder the family’s ability to recover damages if they lose control.-0-
