Interim results of investigations into the activities of five funds.
Corruption, once wild and brazen is becoming commonplace.
In previous articles, we examined the activities of five foundations that waste taxpayers’ money, are lacking in accountability and transparency, showcase extreme inefficiency, and likely engaging in corrupt practices. Now we present our intermediate conclusion.
Public servants face many restrictions. Their salary is fixed by law, they must file declarations of income and property, be present at their workplaces, follow the dress code, and endure scrutiny from the press and regulatory bodies. All this for a paycheck and the hope of a bonus.
And really, why risk, holding relatively high government positions, hoping to take bribes and kickbacks, with the real possibility of getting caught?
Instead, you can create some random ” development fund”, and channel money from the budget into it, and that’s it.
This allows setting arbitrary salaries for employees, since, it’s not regulated by law. You can hire anyone regardless of qualifications. Conflicts of interest? We haven’t heard of any. End-of-year bonuses are at the management’s discretion, often awarded irrespective of performance. Add to this the incomprehensible purchases of tenders with only one participant for large sums. And the cherry on top – not only do these people avoid filing income declarations, but we do not even know who they are, despite them living off our funds.
The main part is that the outcome of such funds is not even zero, it’s negative.
The ANIF fund, notorious for its salaries, lack of transparency, and inefficiency invested only in the FlyArna airline, which failed, resulting in a loss of 4.5 billion drams. However, the fund employees did not deny their salaries amounting to 4 billion drams.
Adding insult to injury, ANIF created two more subsidiaries, which were no different, except in terms of embezzlement. The ARFI Foundation paid its employees 200 million annually for creating an empty website. The Entrepreneur + State Foundation has distinguished itself by the fact that it hasn’t even received a license from the Central Bank or published any reports, yet it invested $7 million of taxpayers’ money in incomprehensible organizations on unclear terms and pays quite substantial salaries. And by this, we mean salaries of 3-5 million drams per month.
No supervisory bodies have managed to halt these embezzlements, although law enforcement agencies should have been involved with many criminal cases. It appears these funds have protection at the highest levels.
Additionally, there was also a private fund Amber Capital Armenia, entrusted with 7 million dollars by the Government for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. But for some reason, this investment fund is registered in Luxembourg, with no reports available in Armenia, leaving unclear where and under what terms our money is invested. Who chose this company for management, and was there a tender? There is no information. However Amber Capital receives the management bonus on time. Likely, we’ll never see this money again.
There is also Enterprise Armenia, a fund for investment promotion, which spends 550 million annually on administrative expenses, has incurred over a billion in losses from loan guarantees to businesses, and an undefined scope of activities. Yet we, the taxpayers, continue to pay for it.
Then why is there a fuss over bonuses to officials and parliament members, while much larger-scale embezzlement goes unnoticed? The answer lies in the confusing reporting or lack thereof. Information had to be pieced together, and the press struggled to analyze financial statements. Our analysis of the activities of these five funds indicates a probable loss of around 20 billion drams to the budget. And this is just the beginning; there are dozens of such funds under various ministries. After all, corruption isn’t just about bribes and kickbacks but it’s also about non-transparent and unaccountable waste.
How long will the budget endure such a thing? And how long will we, the taxpayers, tolerate it?
All previous detailed articles can be found at popoq.am in three languages.
