For 2015 and 2016, the Armenian government has allocated the Ministry of Diaspora 8.2 million AMD (US$17,110) per year to publish its yearly Armenian Diaspora Yearbook.

According to a study by the country’s Control Chamber (an auditing agency), two companies vied for the bid and the winner was Astghik Gratoun, with a bid of 7.762 million AMD.

On March 20, 2015, the ministry signed a contract with the company to publish 2,100 copies of the 2014 yearbook.

Only 1,025 copies of the yearbook were distributed. The remaining 1,075 copies, valued at 3.976 milion AMD, are collecting dust in storage.

This number is worse than the preceding year when only 630 copies of the 2013 yearbook remained in storage.

The Control Chamber, in its audit, rightly concludes that the number of yearbooks to be printed should be cut, but can’t explain why so much money was allocated in the first place.