Five high-ranking Economy Ministry officials, including ex-Minister Kerobyan, accused of corruption

YEREVAN, February 16. /ARKA/. Eight people, including five officials of Armenia’s Ministry of Economy, are accused of apparent abuses committed during a tender announced for the purchase of services for the needs of the ministry, the press service of the Investigative Committee reported.
The officials allegedly created conditions for illegally disqualifying a private company from the tender announced for the establishment of a bank of state investment projects so that it would be won by another bidder that offered 392 million drams (about $1 million), three times the price offered by the disqualified competitor.
According to the Investigative Committee, 4 companies applied for the two-stage tender in 2022, two of which passed the pre-qualification stage- a U.S.-registered software company Synergy International Systems and Harmonia company,
According to the investigators, acting on the instructions of their superior, the ministry officials held meetings and telephone conversations with representatives of Synergy to discuss the terms of the tender and even provided them with the package of documents submitted to the tender commission by Harmonia company.
After the tender commission announced Synergy the winner, the competitor company filed a lawsuit against the decision with a Yerevan court, which in 2023 June ruled to declare the decision of the tender commission invalid. Only on August 31, 2023 the commission recognized Harmonia as the winner of the tender.
The Investigative Committee spokesman, Gor Abrahamian, told azatutyun.am that Kerobyan is among five ministry officials indicted in the case.
Synergy’s founder Ashot Hovanesian and two current and former female employees of the company were also arrested but later the women who have little children were set free pending investigation.
The Investigative Committee also stated that the ministry official detained in another criminal case unreasonably facilitated the transfer of 238 million drams to the accounts of farmers involved in the creation of intensive orchards, who did not provide the relevant documents and misappropriated the funds. According to the Investigative Committee, the detained official was in close relations with these persons. -0-