(Saturday, May 16)
“Hayots Ashkhar” is very critical of the Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA) company’s application to state utility regulators requesting a 40 percent surge in its electricity prices. The paper gets the impression that the ENA set the highest possible tariff, questioning the methodology of its calculations meant to justify the price hike. “The company has come up with a stunning proposal regarding its so-called technical and commercial losses,” it says. “Unlike in other energy firms, those losses in this network reach staggering levels.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak,” for its part, scrutinizes the ENA’s other financial records. The paper says it has found, in particular, that the Russian-owned company spends $375 in monthly rent on a luxury car used by one of its top managers. The lease agreement was signed for a three-year period, meaning that the car will cost the ENA a total of 28.5 million drams. “That 28.5 million-dram expenditure is incorporated into the price of electricity sold to us,” writes the paper. “And the list goes on. The ENA has leased over two dozen cars from the same individual, paying over $500,000 for that.”
“The ENA has leased not only expensive cars but vast properties, payments for which have also been incorporated into its bid for an electricity price rise,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” “Who are the owners of those properties? There is no doubt that not only senior ENA executives but also government officials from various regions of Armenia are in that business. They are the ones who own the bulk of the rented properties.”
Hamlet Harutiunian, a parliament deputy from the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), tells “Zhamanak” that there is nothing wrong with the fact that Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian’s son Argam is set to become mayor of Artashat, a town 30 kilometers south of Yerevan. “Would you praise me for the fact that my children occupy no government posts?” he says. “I’m very unhappy with that. I would love to see my children to have a place in public life.”
(Heghine Buniatian)