Vanadzor Municipality Seems Indifferent to Scandal

In a bizarre twist of fate, what remains of the Vanadzor water purification station, never fully built during the Soviet era,  has been sold to an individual who just a month ago was charged with looting it.

It was Vanadzor Mayor Samvel Darbinyan who raised the theft alarm back on June 7, 2010. An investigation uncovered that some 422,000 AMD worth of metal pieces and concrete slabs were stolen. Property damage to the community was put at over 4 million AMD.

A bit later, the culprit was identified – Artur Saroukhanyan.

Karen Shahbazyan, the Lori Marz Prosecutor, seemed to get things confused a bit when he stated that Saroukhanyan, after having purchased the site, caused property damage after trying to remove equipment and other materials.

In fact, Saroukhanyan conducted his pilferage spree earlier on, from June 2-7. The criminal case was launched on June 22.

The site was purchased by Saroukhanyan much later, on September 6. Thus, when he bought the place, Saroukhanyan was already facing criminal charges.

Seemingly also coming to the defense of Saroukhanyan was another local official – Tigran Papanyan, head of the Vanadzor Municipal Architecture and Construction Department.

Papanyan claims that the site was sold to Saroukhanyan after the culprit had paid back damages incurred by the city.

However, an official letter was received by the Lori Regional Investigations Division only on October 14, from the Vanadzor Municipality, stating that the 4 million in damages had been paid back. It was only then that the charges against Saroukhanyan were dropped.

When asked about the price paid for the cleaning site, Papanyan would only say that the 4 million in property damages was deducted from the auction price.

The Vanadzor Municipal Council had originally place a starting bid on the site for 60.232 million. Saroukhanyan wound up paying 63.243 million.

It’s interesting that a man with deep pockets like Saroukhanyan would resort to pilferage; even more so since he knew about the upcoming auction through the press.

The Vanadzor Municipality had placed on the site on the auction block twice before, but there were no takers.

What Saroukhanyan purchased for the 63 million were the existing structures; not the land itself. The municipality said as much in the auction announcement. The town wanted someone to buy the buildings, tear them down and sell off what they could. After doing so, the land would revert back to the municipality for other usage.

Papanyan says a new cleaning center is planned for the site. The town plans to finish the new center by 2016. He adds that the buyer has two years to dismantle the buildings.

Papanyan argues that it wouldn’t be cost effective to finish construction on the present center given that the equipment inside is 40 years outdated.

The new center would be equipped with bio-chemical cleaning technologies as opposed to the mechanical process in the present center.