Preliminary investigation of the criminal proceeding on apparent abuses committed during the procurement tender for «Creation of a bank of public investment projects» service for the needs of the RA Ministry of Economy is ongoing in General Department of Investigation of Crimes against the State, Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order and Public Security of the RA Investigative Committee.

Through preliminary investigation it was found out that for the purpose of creating a «Bank of public investment projects» a two-stage tender was announced in 2022 and 4 entrepreneurs applied to take part in it. Two of the entrepreneurs, company «S» and fund «H» passed the pre-qualification stage and participated in the actual tender.

In the result of large-scale operative-intelligence measures taken by the employees of the RA National Security Service, as well as investigative and secret investigative actions conducted by the investigative body it was found out that a group of officials of the RA Ministry of Economy, having a prejudicial decision on finding the company  «S» as a winner, at any cost, in order to realize that purpose, with the help of the company director and employees, carried out actions aimed at restricting tender and removing the competitor of the company "S" from the tender.

Particularly, a number of officials of the RA Ministry of Economy, by the instruction of their head official, had meetings and telephone calls with the representatives of the company "S" during the tender, discussed the conditions of the tender with them, even provided them with the documents submitted to the commission by the competitor fund «H» and with their help established such new or amended conditions during the tender to which the documents submitted by the fund might be considered non-compliant:, enabling it to be removed from the tender.

Moreover, before the announcement of the tender the mentioned officials being aware that the price proposal of the company would be AMD tantamount up to 700.000 USD, and at different stages of the tender learning that the reasonable cost of purchase of «Creation of a bank of public investment projects» service was AMD tantamount to about 300.000 USD, went on with the actions aimed at providing the company’s victory, at any cost.

It was also found out that during the tender proposals had been made for an alternative way to procure the program at a more affordable price, however that proposal was not even considered.

Through investigation it was grounded that before the tender evaluation commission meeting, two officials of the RA Ministry of Economy clearly stated and reaffirmed to the director of company «S» about their position of removing the fund «H» from the tender and providing the victory of company «S». After it they handed the package of documents submitted by their competitor fund "H" over to the employees of the company and based on them, received the company’s conclusion on the fund's non-compliance with the conditions of the tender. Based on it, at the evaluation commission meeting the fund was removed from the tender.

It was also found out that the employee and director of the company, being sure that the company’s victory was guaranteed at the tender and taking advantage of the circumstance that actually they had no competitor at the meeting, increased the cost of the project by AMD tantamount to 50 thousand USD. Thus, the company which had proposed a cost for more than 392mln AMD tantamount to 1mln USD, was found the winner at the tender whereas the cost proposal of the fund, which had been illegally removed from the tender, was 108mln AMD.

The fund filed a lawsuit against the commission's decision at the Civil Court of the First Instance of Yerevan and by the court’s verdict dated June 20, 2023 the decision on finding the company «S» winner at the tender was found invalid. Thus on August 31, 2023 at the evaluation commission meeting the fund was found the winner of the tender based on the court’s verdict.

During the examination of the lawsuit of the fund, as well as after the lawsuit had been sufficed by the court, the officials of the ministry, again by the instruction of their head, continued their meetings and considerations with the employees of company «S», agreed their actions with them and even when the fund’s lawsuit had been sufficed, considered the issue of signing an agreement with the company, in case of its impossibility, cancelling the tender under the pretext of the disappearance of the need for the object of purchase and in order to provide the company’s unconditional victory, holding a new tender.

Moreover, even after the fund had been found the winner at the tender on the base of the court’s verdict, the high-ranking official of the ministry assigned his deputy, the head of the relevant subdivision of the ministry, to submit a budget application of 400,000,000 AMD to the RA Ministry of Finance in order to purchase the project, which was carried out.

In the result of the mentioned actions significant damage was caused to the legitimate interests of the fund and the state. Particularly, the fund was deprived of the right to participate in the tender held for procurement of the mentioned service in conditions of equality and without discrimination, to win in the conditions of undisputed existence of grounds provided for by law, the opportunity to provide services and to receive income, was forced to spend resources for a long time to restore its violated rights and legitimate interests. The state has so far been deprived of the opportunity to create a bank of public investment projects and, as a result, more effective management and control of investments.

Appropriate charges were pressed against 8 persons, in total, for committing the above mentioned committals. 5 of them are officials of the RA Ministry of Economy, 3 – representatives of the mentioned company. At this moment of investigation, one of the latters is under pretrial detention.