The documents sent from the State Supervision Service of the Republic of Armenia and received by the Department of State Interests Protection of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Armenia revealed that on July 26, 2012 on the basis of the project submitted by the Mayor of Yerevan, the Government of the Republic of Armenia made a decision on the investment program for the construction of the multifunctional complex "World of Book" at the address 36 Yeznik Koghbatsi Street in Yerevan. According to it, N LLC proposed the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing and in connection with the recognition of Yerevan as the World Book Capital in 2012 by UNESCO, to build a multifunctional "World of Book" complex, and it is ready to use its own funds on the land plot located at that address, according to the contract agreement of Secondary Music School after Tchaikovsky, build a new boiler house on the cornering headquarter of the school on the streets Yeznik Koghbatsi and Pushkin, 288 sq.m. meters area of attic as a concert hall.

 

According to that decision, 300 square meters of land plot located at Yeznik Koghbatsi Street 36 was taken from the property attached to the school, as well as the boiler house with an area 35.3 sq.m. was transferred to the LLC as a means of payment for the mentioned works.

 

The estimated budget for the construction of the boiler house and attic, according to the planning and estimate documents is 102 million AMD and market value of the mentioned 300 sq.m. meters of land plot and 35.3 sq.m. boiler house as of July 23, 2012 is 100 million AMD.

 

In order to fulfill the obligations of the works of the boiler house and attic, a pledge agreement was concluded recognizing the mentioned properties as subject to pledge.

 

The contract for the completion of the construction contract set by the General Contractor Company and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia stipulates 2.5 years, and the control over the quality of the works has been assigned to the Ministry.

 

However, it turned out that the mentioned complex has not been built up to date, the obligation to control the construction of the complex, term, market assessment of the mentioned state-owned land, boiler house was not defined by the decision of the RA Government.

 

It was also turned out that the LLC, becoming the owner of the state-owned plot of land with 335.3 sq.m and having only the mentioned land plot in his assets, alienated it with 160 million AMD on September 2016, on March 2019 the land was pledged in the bank with the value of 194 million AMD. That is to say, the Decision 1052-A of the RA Government adopted on 26.07.2012 included false data on the market value of state-owned real estate, as well as on the preparation of design and estimate documents and the cost of construction work.

 

Besides, on June 2015 the RA Government Decision N 1052-A of 26.07.2012 was changed and it was defined that "The Secondary Music School after Tchaikovsky” instead of the construction works planned for the SNCO, the LLC should purchase musical instruments at a cost of 82.477.000 AMD, and the control over the quality of the purchased musical instruments was on the RA Ministry of Culture.

 

According to delivery and acceptance protocol made on May 12, 2016 the musical instruments worth of 83.611.570 AMD were accepted. However, the expertise initiated by the staff of the RA SSS revealed that the real market value of 10 violins and 2 violas were 47,265,000 AMD (excluding VAT) handed over to the RA Ministry of Culture is 22,950,000 AMD or 24,315,000 AMD less.

 

In other words, the responsible officials of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia included false data on the real value of the musical instruments in the delivery-acceptance protocol with the assistance of the LLC representative abused their position and embezzled 24.315.000 AMD of particularly large means of state funds.

 

A criminal case has been initiated in the State Interests Protection Department of the RA Prosecutor General's Office on the facts revealed by the investigation under Article 179, Part 3, Point 1, Article 308, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code. The criminal case was sent to the RA Investigative Committee in order to conduct a preliminary investigation.

 

Notice: Every person suspected in or charged with a criminal offense shall be presumed innocent unless proved guilty in the manner prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedure Code and unless the verdict comes into legal force.