Wednesday, July 17 2019 21:12

ArmInfo.The Civil Aviation Committee's spending on the rent of a training aircraft 7-fold exceeded the cost of the aircraft itself, the press service of the  Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia reports.

Thus, according to the information, the Prosecutor General's Office  studied the materials received from the Audit Chamber. The necessary  documents were also requested from the Civil Aviation Committee,  State Revenue Committee, Police, Aviation Training Center CJSC, and  the RA Ministry of Justice.

According to the results of the research, it became known that during  2007-2018, 27 students were admitted for studying at Aviation  Training Center on free-of-charge basis, 18 of whom graduated from  the school with the qualifications of a pilot. Training expenses  amounted to 888 million 778 thousand drams, which were allocated by  the General Department of Civil Aviation (now the Civil Aviation  Committee). Of this amount, 839 million 964 thousand drams were spent  on flight practice.  For the training practice of future pilots in  2013-2018, an agreement was concluded between Aviation Training  Center CJSC and an LLC, according to which LLC for flying time in the  amount of 2434 hours and 50 minutes and the rental of the Diamond DA  40 aircraft was paid 592 million drams.  In addition, the internal  audit in the Committee on February 14,2016 recorded that the  procurement process was not organized for conducting educational  practice, and the contract of June 7, 2013 with the specified LLC was  continued without any justification.

Payment for the flight time by the General Department of Civil  Aviation was carried out "without any justification" in the amount  exceeding the contract amount - per hour in the amount of 38 thousand  600 drams. In total, over  16 million drams were paid for 414 hours.  It is also noted that the aircraft being leased was to be produced in  2007, while the application submitted states that the aircraft was  produced in 2006. Despite this, the evaluation commission of  "Aviation Training Center" CJSC declared the LLC as the winner of the  tender on January 13, 2016 and signed a lease agreement in the amount  of 184 million 168 thousand drams.

Meanwhile, it turned out that the cost of acquiring the aircraft,  according to the customs declaration, was 86 million 217 thousand  drams. Thus, the Civil Aviation Committee spent on rent of a training  plane the amount seven-fold exceeding the cost of the aircraft  itself. On the basis of the data obtained, the Prosecutor General's  Office opened a criminal case on the grounds of P2, Article 214  (Abuse of authority by employees of commercial or other  organizations) and Part 2, Article 308 (Abuse of office) of the RA  Criminal Code. The preliminary investigation was entrusted to the  Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.