“Armcollection” Director Gets 25 Liters Daily for Company Car

Hetq has obtained copies of directives handed down by Lyudvig Sargsyan, Director of “ArmCollection” CJSC (Hayinkasatsia) regarding “permissible gasoline amounts” to be used by company cars. ArmCollection is a cash collections company servicing inter-bank transfers. In Armenia, such companies must be licensed.

It turns out that the former Head of the RA Police Service’s Organized Crime Department (6th Department), who also combated economic crimes, has ordered 25 liters of gas per day for his company car. This includes Saturdays and Sundays. Lyudvig Sargsyan is chauffeured around in a Toyota Camry which, according to the manual, gets up to 100 kilometers a day on just 10 liters of gas in the city.

This means that Mr. Sargsyan would have to drive up to 250 kilometers per day in Yerevan to use up all that gasoline. Imagine driving 250 kilometers in Yerevan day in and day out. I asked friend of mine who are chauffeurs. None of them said it was possible to clock that many kilometers in a day in Yerevan.

I talked to taxi drivers. They said they drove 200 kilometers per day on average and that 250 was even possible. It means spending your entire working day in a car. If this in fact is what Director Sargsyan does, when does he actually find time to work at the office? Why does he spend so much time behind the wheel? Perhaps it’s a hobby. Who knows? “ArmCollection” is fully owned by the RA Central Bank and solely accountable to it.

Director Sargsyan has only permitted gasoline rations to the other company cars from Monday to Friday. Director Sargsyan has ordered 25 liters of gas daily for his car and 20 liters for his deputy director. The gas ration is for all seven days of the week. In other words, the deputy director also gets around quite a bit; to the tune of 200 kilometers daily. Naturally, Sargsyan’s deputy must receive less; there are hierarchical proprieties to be respected.

Why do these Central Bank employees need all this gas? Maybe they work all day from the comfort of their car while driving from one end of Yerevan to the other. But all day, seven days a week?