The Ministry of Defense of Armenia has given a clarification regarding the press release issued by the State Supervision Service.

Armenian News-NEWS.am presents the clarification of the Ministry of Defense.

“In response to inquiries from several media outlets, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informs that:

According to the press release posted on the official website of the State Supervision Service of Armenia (www.supervision.am), the State Supervision Service conducted a study at the Ministry of Defense of Armenia regarding the lawfulness and effectiveness of procurement to obtain diesel for needs in 2019. The statement of information was forwarded to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia for a criminal-legal evaluation of the recorded violations.

In regard to this, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia deems it necessary to inform that, in each budget year, the Ministry of Defense conducts nearly 1,000-1,100 procurement procedures, each of which contains 8-10 amounts on average. Moreover, on a daily basis, the procurement procedures underway and in different stages range between 50 and 200, and as a result of the specified procedures, the procedures linked to implementation of the concluded contracts are very large in number.

It is obvious that there may be complaints, as well as shortcomings and problems with supply. Due to this, the procurement at the Ministry of Defense is always in the focus of various bodies conducting inspections and police bodies.

The Ministry of Defense deems it necessary to mention that there may be problems with integrity of representatives of the Ministry of Defense with regard to the aforementioned shortcomings. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense assures that it always and consistently takes serious measures to increase and strengthen the integrity of the employees involved in procedures, particularly procurement.”