YEREVAN. – Within the framework of the criminal case under investigation at the Investigative Committee of Armenia, a charge has been filed against the project team manager of a French company that carries out technical supervision during construction of the North-South Road Corridor in the country, and for fraudulently stealing money equivalent to more than $1.8 million.
As reported earlier, misuse was exposed at the North-South Road Corridor construction project. As a result, the damage caused to the state totals AMD 23,553,817,000 (approx. $48,439,720), by preliminary calculations.
Evidence was found with respect to additional payments made during construction work, and linked to the project team manager of a French joint venture that carries out technical supervision at the North-South Road Corridor construction investment project, the Investigative Committee informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Ever since December 2015, this person had the duty of overseeing the compliance of qualitative features and extent of the road construction being carried out at Tranche 1 of this project.
According to preliminary investigation, this project team manager had reached prior consent with persons in charge of a contractor company carrying out the construction, as well as with some authorized persons from the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies of Armenia. And on September 1, 2016 he had issued and submitted for the client’s payment a false payment document with respect to all the works being completed at Trance 1. This document had included an additional payment of AMD 871,083,253—equivalent to $1,804,232—as the cost of the actually non-fulfilled work. As a result, large amount of money was fraudulently stolen from the loans provided to Armenia to carry out the project.
A criminal charge has been filed against the said project team manager, and for large-scale embezzlement.
A signature bond to not leave Armenia has been enforced as the preventive measure for this person.
The preliminary investigation is still in progress.
Misuse exposed at Armenia North-South Road Corridor construction project