Acting head of Electric Networks of Armenia refuses to resign despite demands from interim administrator

YEREVAN, July 21. /ARKA/. Acting CEO of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) national power distribution company David Ghazinyan said he had no plans to write a letter of resignation.

Earlier, ENA's interim government-appointed administrator Romanos Petrosyan said that Ghazinyan would be dismissed from his position because he was “one of the people responsible for ENA ending up in this situation.”

“Of course, I will not resign. It seems that he (Romanos Petrosyan) has decided to assert himself at my expense. I have worked here for 20 years, they (the Armenian authorities) are making false accusations, they have everything in their hands, let them prove it,” Ghazinyan told reporters on Monday outside the ENA headquarters.

He added that he personally does not trust Petrosyan and the country's authorities.

“I do not consider myself his (Petrosyan's) subordinate. I am not afraid of anything, I will stand my ground until the end,” Gazinyan said.

Romanos Petrosyan was appointed interim manager of ENA on July 18 by a decision of the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission as part of administrative proceedings and the application of preventive measures against ENA.

The decision of the head of the Public Services Regulatory Commission states that in recent years, there has been growing dissatisfaction in society with major systemic failures, frequent power outages, voltage fluctuations, and delays in connecting new subscribers.

The Electric Networks of Armenia is part of the Tashir Group of Companies, which is owned and managed by billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. ENA manages medium and low voltage distribution networks in Armenia, serving about 1 million subscribers.

Since 2016, the Tashir Group is said to have invested approximately $680 million in the modernization of Electric Networks of Armenia alone, with another $150-200 million invested in the creation of new capacity.-0-