Pashinyan Blamed ENA for New Year’s Eve Power Outages
YEREVAN, January 8. /ARKA/. Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC failed to fulfill its investment obligations, particularly in the regions of Armenia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated.
"If there hadn't been any legal proceedings over the past six months (after the arrest of Tashir Group President Samvel Karapetyan, ENA is now under temporary management by Romanos Petrosyan - ed.), not just a few villages, but three times as many would have been without power," Pashinyan said at a briefing on Thursday.
He suspects that all of this has been going on for a long time to generate political discontent in Armenia.
"As a result of the work of Romanos Petrosyan and our other colleagues, it became clear that there isn't a single family in Armenia whose money hasn't been stolen by the ESA without being padded (on their electricity bills - ed.). This applies to both government agencies and the army. I am confident that we made the right and justified decision and will be able to defend it at all levels, and you will see it. I apologize to those citizens who spent New Year's Eve in the dark for not making a decision on the ENA three or seven years ago," Pashinyan said.
He also stated that the ENA has no funds of its own.
"These are either loans we pay for, or what we pay for electricity," Pashinyan said.
Earlier, Pashinyan stated that there are two options regarding the future management of the ENA. Option one is for the ENA to become state-owned and transferred to a trust. Option two is for the ENA to be privatized by a reputable international company with management experience in this sector.
