Gagik Aghbalyan

In a cost cutting public relations ploy, Yerevan First Deputy Mayor Kamo Areyan told reporters that 26 municipal staff cars being used to ferry various officials to and fro would be taken out of service. It turns out that eleven of the cars in question are broken down and that seven are not being serviced.

Fourteen of the cars, used to transport staffers from Yerevan’s administrative district offices, were purchased over the years at a cost of 177.3 million AMD (approximately US$ 372,000). Twelve of the vehicles, valued at 38 million AMD, to be taken out of service came from the car pools of Yerevan Municipality agencies.

The most expensive car of the above twelve is a 2004 GAZ-3102 auto purchased for 6.5 million AMD ($13,650). But some quite expensive cars as well have been pulled. There’s the 21.6 million AMD ($45,000) 2007 Volkswagen Touareg pulled from the car pool of Yerevan’s Kanaker-Zeytoun administrative district.

Then there’s the 1998 Mercedes Benz S-320, purchased in 2006 for 13.5 million AMD, used by the Department of Business, Services and Advertising at Yerevan’s Kentron district. Pictured below is the 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser purchased new for 22.2 million AMD($47,000) and used by Mikayel Samvelyan, one of the two deputies of Kentron district head Ara Sadoyan. It will be auctioned off with a starting bid of 7.6 million AMD.

Mikayel Samvelyan’s Toyota Land Cruiser

Also on the chop block is the 2008 Toyota LC Prado seen below. Valued at 12.9 million AMD, it was used by the Kentron district’s Department of Revenue and Collection.

Toyota Prado to be pulled from service

Yerevan taxpayers footed the 30 million AMD ($63,000) for the Mercedes Benz R350 seen below that has been parked for the past three years. It once belonged to the Kentron district’s Department of Business, Services and Advertising. It too is up for sale. The Yerevan Municipality says the car was involved in an accident, but that it works.

$63,000 Mercedes up for sale

All the expensive cars listed above were purchased by Gagik Beglaryan, Armenia’s current Minister of Transport and Communication who served as Kentron district head between 2002 and 2009.

Top photo: 40 million AMD Mercedes at the service of the head of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport.