This year Armenia’s Control Chamber (similar to the U.S. Government Accountability Office) will conduct investigations at two institutions of higher learning – the Khachatur Abovian Armenian State Teachers' Training University and the Mkhitar Heratsi State Medical University.

The investigations will look into how state funds have been spent, the spending of non-budgetary funds, and how state property is being managed and operated.

The Control Chamber (CC), in its annual program, hasn’t explained why these two schools have been singled out for investigation. Aram Alaverdyan, the CC’s spokesperson, says that there are 100 internationally accepted norms based on which the CC’s council has devised its annual investigation program. Alaverdyan did not specify which norms played a role in selecting the schools in question for investigation.

We should note that in the past nine years (2007-2015), the last time the CC conducted a comprehensive examination of higher education institutions was in 2010. According to the program of that year, investigations were conducted of the State Engineering University of Armenia, the Abovian State Teachers’ Training University, the Bryusov State Linguistic University, the Armenian National Agrarian University, the Heratsi State Medical University and the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan.

Among other violations, the CC found that amounts were spent from the state budget at the schools that hadn’t been planned for and that, in some schools, the financial amounts of the violations weren’t specified.

The CC didn’t conduct a full investigation at the State Medical University arguing that the Law Regarding the Control Chamber included restrictions on investigations of State Non-Commercial Organizations (SNCOs).

This year the CC presented a proposal to parliament that changes to Articles 5 and six of the law be made.

The State Medical University isn’t a SNCO but rather a foundation, and the CC can specifically look into this issue if it wants.

Hetq has written about how the State Medical University failed to return undisbursed student aid funds to the government in 2015.The remaining funds were never returned to the state budget.

The school broke a contract it had with fourth year students at the medical school and only allocated funds to 29 out of 54 students promised free tuition.

Alaverdyan told Hetq that the CC was appraised of the situation and that, if and when needed, is examining the issues.

As to what the CC will uncover at the universities, only time will tell.