ARMENIA ACCUSES RUSSIAN RAILWAY COMPANY OF MISUSE OF FUNDS

Public Television of Armenia
March 17 2009

[Presenter] The South Caucasus Railway company has implemented its
investment programme incompletely, the Transport and Communications
Ministry has said. The 100m dollar spending that the Russian
concessionaire has reported is inflated. The money may have been spent
but not for purchasing locomotives or fixing railroad; it has been
spent on the purchase of luxurious vehicles and apartments. Transport
Minister Gurgen Sargsyan made public the ministry’s final report. The
South Caucasus Railway has implemented the 2008 investment programme
by 30 per cent only. It has promised to add the unused money to the
14bn drams [about 37.5m dollars] planned to be spent this year and
to finally fix the Armenian [railroad] network.

[Transport and Communications Minister Gurgen Sargsyan, speaking
to journalists] Investments were planned to fix and replace the
roads. It has not been implemented. It was planned to purchase and
repair locomotives, but only four locomotives have been repaired. There
are deviations from the planned investment programmes, and only 30 per
cent of what was planned, which was 12b drams [about 32.2m dollars],
have been fulfilled.