$77,000 for Transporting Mher Grigoryan’s Delegation
Hetq.am writes:
“On March 18, Prime Minister Pashinyan made a decision to send a delegation to Kazakhstan (the city of Shymkent), headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan. It included Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mnatsakan Safaryan, Armenia’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan Armen Ghevondyan, Deputy Minister of Economy Narek Hovakimyan, Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Rafael Gevorgyan, the Deputy Prime Minister’s adviser, and the person responsible for protocol.
Pashinyan instructed his Chief of Staff, Arayik Harutyunyan, to organize a flight: Yerevan–Shymkent on March 26 and Shymkent–Yerevan on March 27.
Just as on March 22 (the day of the President’s flight), the Republic of Armenia’s state Airbus A319 was not involved in the flights on March 26–27, according to aviation platforms. However, in this case as well, it was the Sukiasyan family’s Gulfstream G450 that took M. Grigoryan’s delegation to Kazakhstan and brought it back.
Since the Deputy Prime Minister is not an official subject to state protection, and the aforementioned provision of the ‘Law on Procurement’ concerning state secrets does not apply to him, we sent an inquiry to the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, A. Harutyunyan, with the same content as the one sent to the President’s Office, expecting a proper response. However, Armen Khachatryan, Head of the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Office, did not answer the following questions.
1. Why did the RA delegation not use the RA government aircraft, or why were airline tickets not purchased from airlines operating regular passenger flights, but instead was the option of using the services of a business-class aircraft chosen?
2. Before concluding the contract, was a price comparison carried out between the service provided by this aircraft and the cost of tickets offered by airlines operating regular passenger flights?
3. If the procurement was carried out through a ‘single-source’ procedure, what is its legal justification, and even in that case, why was a contract concluded with a company directly (FlyOne Armenia) or indirectly (FlyOne Romania) connected to the family of a member of the ruling faction?
The Prime Minister’s Office stated that the payments stipulated by the contract were made under the budget item ‘expenses for foreign business trips,’ within the framework of which expenses are not entered into the state procurement armeps.am platform. Nevertheless, they sent us the contract concluded on March 24 between the Prime Minister’s Office and ‘FlyOne Armenia’ LLC.
The Sukiasyan family’s company undertook to transport seven people from Yerevan to Shymkent and from there back to Yerevan on a business-class Gulfstream G450.
The contract included airport handling services, catering, VIP services, aircraft operation services, including crew, fuel, technical maintenance, aeronavigation, and airport fees. The contract price is 28,600,000 drams (including taxes and duties), which at the Central Bank’s current exchange rate is equivalent to approximately $77,000.
The questions remain unanswered as to why the Deputy Prime Minister’s delegation did not travel with ‘regular’ airline(s). There is no direct flight between Yerevan and Shymkent, but logically, the transportation could have been arranged by connecting flights. For that reason, we had asked the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister whether a price comparison had been carried out. The absence of an answer to this question raises new questions, as does the question of why ‘FlyOne Armenia,’ belonging to the family of Khachatur Sukiasyan, a member of the ruling team, was chosen.”