ArmInfo. The Armenian prosecutor's office presented preliminary results of a criminal investigation into the abuse of the North-South highway. The Office recalls that a criminal case was instituted last year on the grounds of Part 2 of Art. 308 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia on the basis of data on corruption abuse by a number of officials. In particular, in tenders for the selection of the main contractor, organizations offering a higher price were recognized as winners. As a result, through the commission of a number of official crimes, the lack of control over the implementation of the construction program, $ 300 million of credit and budget funds were spent inefficiently.
It also turned out that low-quality roads built under the Tranche-1, were taken into operation. At the same time, the state unreasonably committed itself to pay huge fines of millions of dollars for violation by companies and organizations of the deadlines established by the contracts for the implementation of construction and other works and services.
Numerous schemes were also established for tax evasion, embezzlement of money and so on, in which 10 more criminal cases were instituted, which were then combined into one criminal case. At the same time, dozens of major contractors and subcontractors, local and foreign commercial organizations affiliated with them, as well as officials and their relatives, were involved in criminal schemes.
In total, 18 defendants are in the case, including former senior officials.
Total damage is estimated at 23.7 billion drams; of these, 225.7 million drams were restored and transferred to the deposit account of the RA Investigative Committee. The investigation into 6 episodes of the criminal case continues.