Marutyan: We made a mistake by providing only one company with a  garbage collection function

ArmInfo. The previous authorities of Yerevan made a mistake by providing only one company with the function of garbage collection, thereby not leaving "airbags" for  themselves. On May 13, Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan said this during  meeting broadcasted live on Facebook initiated by the Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan.

Reporting to the prime minister about the current situation with  garbage collection, Marutyan called one of the reasons for the  failure of Sanitek company, which, in his opinion, does not own  experience in this field.  He also said that the information about  the company having any experience in garbage collection is  contradictory.

To Pashinyan's question whether the municipality performed its  functions in a timely manner, Marutyan assured that the municipality  clearly and on time transferred the necessary funds to the company.   According to the mayor, Sanitek cannot work, first of all, because   the fleet is in poor condition.  "Under the contract, the company   was supposed to supply 16 thousand metal trash bins, but now the  total number of the company's trash bins in Yerevan barely reaches 5  thousand'', he explained.  The mayor also reminded that after Sanitek  entered the Armenian market, the previously existing sanitary sectors  were liquidated, however trusting such a business to only company  always carries risks.  In turn, Pashinyan drew attention to the  Lebanese origin of the company, noting that the authorities so far  prefer not to talk about the real owners of the company.

''We do not tell for now brother of  which former senior official is  connected with Lebanon. These are issues that we do not touch upon  yet'', said Pashinyan.  It should be noted that the brother of Serzh  Sargsyan Levon Sargsyan for many years was the Ambassador of Armenia  to Lebanon.

Earlier it became known that according to preliminary calculations of  the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia, Sanitek International  LLC and the Armenian branch of Sanitek LLC owed the state about 600  million drams.

At the meeting of the Council of Elders, it was also decided to  allocate 1 billion 726 million drams to resolve problems with garbage  collection. It should be noted that the problem of garbage collection  has been acute in Yerevan since last summer. Yerevan Municipality and  Sanitek cannot agree on the proper organization of waste collection,  periodically making mutual accusations. The city authorities  repeatedly fined the company (for a total of 150 thousand dollars),  and recently Sanitek went to court, demanding compensation in almost  the same amount.