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The original was posted on /r/armenia by /u/ar_david_hh on 2024-09-20 23:44:15+00:00.
10 minutes.
anti-corruption verdict: Serj’s Justice Minister-turned Constitutional Court judge Hrayr Tovmasyan is found guilty on corruption charges
The Lower Court found Tovmasyan guilty on two felony counts. Tovmasyan abused his powers during his tenure as Justice Minister by preventing notaries from purchasing a property so he could purchase it.
Tovmasyan also forced the president of the notary chamber to rent his properties for unfavorably high prices.
Tovmasyan’s actions also caused ֏22 million in damages to the state.
Tovmasyan will not be imprisoned due to the statute of limitations. The defense might appeal the verdict because he denies wrongdoing. If both appeals fail, Tovmasyan’s duties as a judge will be terminated. His duties will be naturally terminated in 2030 when his term ends.
anti-corruption: several million $ worth of properties have been confiscated this year as part of asset forfeiture proceedings against public officials suspected of possessing գողոն
There are many pending cases. These were executed recently:
• 3 court verdicts: 5 real estate, 2 vehicles, total ֏1.1B
• 8 reconciliation agreements: 7 real estate, 1 vehicle, total ֏5B
… total volume of assets authorities want to confiscate
• 1,205 real estate
• 230 vehicles
• Over ֏566B ($1.5 billion)
anti-corruption: no honor among thieves
The owner of a construction company allegedly wanted to illegally extend the permit to build a condo so he gave a ֏80M bribe to an intermediary who promised to pass it to a Yerevan official but never did so. Both are charged with multiple felony counts.
the ruling party summoned the head of the public utility regulator to grill him for outages in power grid
During the 2.5-hour Q&A session, the regulator accused the electricity distribution company ՀԷՑ of failing to invest the planned amount of cash in the network since 2016:
Planned: ֏233B
Actual: ֏230B
But the areas where the cash was spent were even more problematic.
Planned for network quality improvement: ֏134B
Actual: ֏69B
So ՀԷՑ spent almost twice less than what it was supposed to on the quality improvement.
Instead, ՀԷՑ spent a lot more on connecting new subscribers to the power grid: ֏67B instead of ֏28B.
ՀԷՑ also spent ֏15B more than planned on the commercial electricity metering system.
The regulator noted that despite the underinvestment in key areas, the level of electricity loss was reduced from 7.5% to 6.5% recently.
As a reader of Transcaucasian Telegraph, you have access to ՀԷՑ’s press conference TLDR and investment plans in the September 4 report.
QP MP ANDRANIK KOCHARYAN: Lately there have been so many power outages that people are beginning to suspect it’s political.
REGULATOR: The recent outages in Yerevan were a result of a major incident at an important substation. Some issues were fixed quickly, while others required more time and components had to be imported to Armenia, which also required time.
QP MP ANDRANIK KOCHARYAN: How much did [Russian-Armenian billionaire] Samvel Karapetyan pay to purchase ՀԷՑ [in 2015]? ՀԷՑ must have been a lucrative business if so many officials strived to work there; so many ՀԷՑ executives became millionaires.
REGULATOR: We are only concerned about the financial part that becomes a burden and impacts the price of electricity for consumers. That process happened in 2002 during the privatization of ՀԷՑ. It was privatized for $40 million. Then Inter-RAO sold it to someone else, then it was sold to [Samvel Karapetyan’s] Tashir Group. Our regulatory agency is not concerned by those intermediary financial transactions.
MP: What if ՀԷՑ is sold to a foreign entity which then sells it to Azerbaijan?
REGULATOR: The law requires the sale of strategically important energy companies to be approved by the government and multiple agencies if over >25% of shares are being sold.
QP MP KONJOYAN: Do you actually monitor to ensure that ՀԷՑ credits the penalty-compensation to consumers if the outage lasts over X hours? Many consumers don’t check their bills a month later to see if they were credited.
REGULATOR: Yes. We monitor quarterly, and where we have an automated system it’s very easy to verify. We also regularly receive complaints from consumers and penalize ՀԷՑ if it’s us who discovers the issue first.
QP MP KONJOYAN: Strengthen the monitoring system and let us know if you need legislative amendments because we have many complaints about unpaid credits.
REGULATOR: We are negotiating a new system in which our monitoring system will gain direct access and automatically check for issues more frequently. When a condo loses power for over X hours, every apartment in that condo receives a bill credit.
QUESTION: After the recent [U.S.-assisted] liberalization of the electricity market, what’s the current distribution share today?
REGULATOR: [Besides ՀԷՑ] There are 6 independent sellers with 300 clients who consume 25% of electricity in Armenia. They no longer purchase electricity from ՀԷՑ but ՀԷՑ obviously remains the company that delivers electricity. //
Starting April 2023, the regulator raised the price of connecting a new address to the power grid from ֏177K to ֏693K. That’s how much it costs for ՀԷՑ to connect an address. Prior to this hike, ՀԷՑ was forced to subsidize the cost of new connections by spending less on other crucial programs. Now they’ll have more money for grid upgrades.
QP MP ARSHAKYAN: The regular power outages in Yerevan are harming businesses and Armenia’s “doing business” rating. The quality of electricity delivery is a more important issue.
REGULATOR: Billions of drams are collected by ՀԷՑ, and to ensure that it’s properly invested and that any price hike is justified, over the last couple of years we invited international auditors from Big 10, and more recently - Big 4. This ensures that ՀԷՑ is making purchases of items under fair market values and not inflated prices. There is an issue with many contracts being won by companies affiliated with ՀԷՑ figures so the Government has a working group to address this issue soon; we will introduce new contract restrictions soon.
QP MP ALEXANYAN: Give me the number of electricity poles replaced by ՀԷՑ. Every time I visit a village, they complain that the slightest wind causes a power outage. It’s the same wooden electricity poles installed in the USSR. Did ՀԷՑ invest the billions into their executives’ cars instead? Villagers know that as soon as the latest model of Land Cruiser is released, they are going to see the local ՀԷՑ administrator driving one. Are you overseeing where the investments go?
REGULATOR: They invested ֏298B, which is big, but it’s a fraction of what’s necessary to fully replace Armenia’s power network that was built in the 1930s. As for brand new Land Cruisers, the regulator and ՀԷՑ agree on the size of expenditures and investments, so whatever vehicle ՀԷՑ buys with its net profit is up to them. We are hiring the Big auditors to answer whether ՀԷՑ invested properly or not, were the purchases inflated or not, did ՀԷՑ follow the standards while installing a new pole, etc.
QP MP ALEXANYAN: You recently issued a ֏20M fine to ՀԷՑ for a violation. This is a ridiculously small sum for this company. Let’s discuss raising it. Perhaps that’ll sober up our monopoly.
QP MP BAGRATYAN: Throughout all these years, ՀԷՑ has received enough money to invest $18 per meter of cable, yet the network is still in poor shape.
REGULATOR: The money isn’t spent only on cables; a lot more goes to substations.
QP MP BAGRATYAN: We have the most expensive power grid monopoly in the world. These are the prices of electricity: Kyrgyzstan $0.013, Uzbekistan $0.023, Azerbaijan $0.047, Armenia $0.113, … Why is our monopoly more expensive than Uzbekistan’s monopoly?
REGULATOR: Several things could impact the price of electricity in other countries, including state subsidies, access to natural resources, volume of consumption, etc. This is why we are hiring Big 4 auditors to investigate the effectiveness of investments.
full video, [source,](https://arka.am/en/news/technology/psrc_head_amd_65bn_underinvested_in_improvi…
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