YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. In the first half of 2008, the RA Control Chamber revealed various financial violations of a total of 1.3 billion drams (about 4.3 million USD) in 5 out of the bodies and programs subject to control: the RA ministry of agriculture, the RA ministry of urban development, the Syunik regional administration, the communities of Syunik marz, and the World Bank-financed City Heating Project. The chairmman of the Control Chamber Ishkhan Zakarian announced this at the September 17 press conference. Some materials will soon be sent to the prosecutor's office. "Some state officials will be punished, and the state losses will be recovered without fail," he said. According to I. Zakarian, various violations of about 240 million drams concerning the use of allocations from the 2008 state budget for the implementation of programs were revealed at the ministry of urban development. In particular, checks showed violations of 2.1 mln drams from the sale of several vehicles of the ministry, and violations of 14 billion drams in construction work. Upward distortions of nearly 171 million drams were discovered in 26 out of the 213 repaired facilities checked selectively, which, as I. Zakarain said, means "payments against work which was not done, it is a gross violation, and this money should be paid back to the state budget." The CC also revealed the fact that fines and penalties of 6.5 million drams for delayed work were calculated but not levied by the ministry for transfer to the state budget. The CC found out some cases of inflating door and window prices, as well as cases of causing damage to the state during implementation of the Apartment Purchase Certificate program due to inefficient activity of the State Urban Development Inspection. Violations of a total of 284 million drams were revealed by inspection of a number of programs implemented by the ministry of agriculture in 2007 (in particular, programs on the cleaning of river beds and the reinforcing of river banks, and on construction of border check points), as well as by examination of the activities of some institutions (state nonprofit organizations) under the jurisdiction of the ministry. By the conclusion of the Control Chamber, the WB-financed City Heating Project is a failure. To substantiate this opinion, I. Zakarian gave as an example the fact that only 193 poor families out of the envisaged 4,000 were supplied with heating in 2006-2007. He said that this project to be completed in the autumn of 2009 will be in the center of their attention.

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