Kerobian indicated that he has disagreed with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on numerous occasions during his more than three-year tenure.
“When I took up the post of minister on November 20, 2020 there was a high probability that I will keep it for a few days or months as regime change [in Armenia] was very likely,” he wrote on Facebook. “During this period, due to many disagreements, I wanted to leave this job many times but I subordinated myself to maximize the value of my service to my country.”
Kerobian shed no light on those disagreements. Nor did he mention the arrests of several senior officials from the Ministry of Economy carried out in two criminal investigations jointly conducted by Armenia’s Investigative Committee and National Security Service (NSS). The officials were moved to house arrest or freed in the following days.
One of them allegedly helped other individuals receive 238 million drams ($590,000) in state agribusiness funding from 20222-2023 in violation of rules set by the ministry. Neither this nor the others officials was charged with bribery or embezzlement, a fact emphasized by Kerobian during cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian last week.
The minister told Pashinian that investigators have “paralyzed the work of the entire state system” because many government officials are now not sure that “their honest work will not be punished in the end.”
The ministry grants investigated by the law-enforcement authorities were allocated from a state fund that helps private entrepreneurs set up intensive fruit orchards. The Armenian government has provided about 100 billion drams ($248 million) in such funding since 2018. Kerobian defended his ministry’s handling of the scheme which the government extended by two more years on February 8.
Kerobian announced his resignation as the Investigative Committee said in a statement that it is continuing to investigate the alleged abuse of the scheme and may identify and indict “dozens of other individuals possibly involved” in them.
Kerobian ruled out his resignation in the immediate aftermath of the arrests. He told state television afterwards that he will take responsibility if the investigators prove their accusations.
Armenia - Ashot Hovanesian inaugurates his Synergy International Systems company's branch in Vanadzor, March 11, 2022.
The other criminal case stems from a procurement tender that was organized by the Ministry of Economy and invalidated by a court last summer. Ministry officials are accused of illegally disqualifying an information technology company, Harmonia, to make sure that the tender is won by another, larger firm, Synergy International Systems.
The investigators also arrested on January 31 Synergy’s founder Ashot Hovanesian and two current and former employees. The latter were set free on Monday. Hovanesian’s lawyers on Tuesday condemned his continuing detention as “illegal and discriminatory.”
Hovanesian’s arrest earlier drew strong condemnation from Armenia’s Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE). It said that “unfounded” detentions of “business representatives and other prominent persons” are turning Armenia into a “risky country” for local and foreign tech entrepreneurs.