Wednesday, September 8 2021 20:04

ArmInfo.For the purchase of consulting services in the framework of arbitration with the general contractor of Tranche-2 of the North-South Investment Corridor, the  Spanish Corsan Corviam Construccion S.A. company, the Armenian  government will allocate $ 1.2 million. The corresponding decision  was made on September 8 at a meeting of the Cabinet.

To recall, Corsan Corviam, carrying out construction work within the  framework of Tranche-2 of the North-South Investment Corridor (at the  Ashtarak-Talin section), has accumulated debts to subcontractors, in  connection with which criminal cases were initiated, including on the  fact of tax evasion.  In September 2018, the Prosecutor General's  Office revealed financial violations during construction, the damage  to the state was estimated at almost $ 50 million. Despite this, a  Spanish company initiated the arbitration lawsuit against Armenia. As  a result, back in March 2020, the Armenian government allocated about  2 million to the Lalive law firm to represent the interests of  Armenia in an arbitration dispute with Corsan Corviam.

As stated in the explanatory notes to today's document, in order to  protect the interests of the Republic of Armenia in the arbitration  case that arose under an agreement of 2012 between the Ministry of  Transport and Communications and the Korsan Corviam Construction  contractor company, the government allowed the Road Department Fund  to conclude an agreement on acquisition of services from Arcadis  Consulting (UK) Limited - the winner of the tender, worth $ 1,175,000  (which is equivalent to 587,500.0 AMD (average exchange rate of AMD  to USD - 500 AMD) for the preparation of an expert opinion on the  study and analysis of the investment program of the North-South  transport corridor - program 1 and 2.

It should be noted that back in June 2019, in an interview with  reporters, former Minister of high-tech industry Hakob Arshakyan said  that construction work within the framework of Tranche-2 of the  North- South Investment Corridor (on the Ashtarak-Talin section,  about 42 km) was suspended due to the conflict with the general  contractor of Tranche-2, the Spanish Corsan Corviam Construccion S.A.   company.  Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the Spanish company  received a full payment from the state for the work done, but did not  fulfill its obligations to 17 subcontractors in the amount of AMD 2  billion 49 million (from August to November 2018). As then Deputy  Minister of Transport, Communications and IT Bagrat Badalyan stated  that the Spanish company has financial difficulties and is at the  stage of bankruptcy. At the same time, as it turned out, the  company's financial difficulties are nothing new, and for 2 years as  the general contractor of the first two tranches, it was in the  process of bankruptcy. Nevertheless, throughout 2018, the company  continued construction work, and the Armenian government continued to  pay money.  And only in 2019 there was disagreement with the company  on a number of points - both in connection with the timing and volume  of work, and the amount of payments. "Based on the results of new  engineering measurements, it turned out that we cannot pay them the  amount they are counting on," the deputy minister said. The Armenian  government, as noted by the Deputy Minister, is trying to resolve the  issue through negotiations. As of today, it is already known that  construction work within the framework of Tranche-2 will not be  completed on time - by the end of July this year. Nevertheless, in  his words, the Ministry of Transport of Armenia does not want to  terminate the contract with the Spaniards and is ready to continue  cooperation if the negotiations "proceed in a normal, constructive  manner." "If we terminate the contract, then we have a rather long  way - the arbitration path and we will have to postpone the work for  several years," he explained. Meanwhile, it was reported earlier that  on the section of the North-South transport corridor -  Yerevan-Artashat, which was commissioned at the end of 2015, pits  formed, and in a number of sections - cracks. But according to the  actual estimate of $ 2 million per 1 km the road must have been  great.

The project of creating a transport corridor "North-South" with a  total length of 556 km will provide access to the Black Sea and  European countries through the territory of Armenia  (Meghri-Kapan-Goris-Yerevan- Ashtarak-Gyumri-Bavra) and Georgia. The  investment program is aimed at providing communication between the  north (border with Georgia) and the south of Armenia (border with  Iran) through transport communications that meet high international  standards, and access to world markets. The corridor was originally  planned to be completed in 2019.