We have previously had multiple discussions regarding the procurement process at the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) company, and signals have come from the economy that mainly interconnected organizations participate in the procurements. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a working meeting Tuesday with the temporary manager of ENA, Romanos Petrosyan.

“That is, the group of owners or the management group of the ENA creates companies, either personally or through persons associated with them, which participate in and win the procurement process,” Pashinyan added, and stated that this situation hinders economic development and competitive conditions in Armenia.

In turn, Romanos Petrosyan noted that this gives a privileged and monopolistic position, which is a direct violation of law and the procedure established by the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia, and brought several examples.

Nikol Pashinyan, for his part, added: “Well, these are very concrete facts, and lawyers call such phenomena ‘money laundering.’ What you are describing, if substantiated, is, in essence, difficult to call by any other name than ‘money laundering.’”