AUCTIONS GONE AWRY: PUBLIC DISCLOSURE IS SADLY LACKING AND NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE
Lousine Toplaghaltsyan

2 009/06/01 | 19:12

Feature Stories Marzes

One month ago, in the pages of the newspaper "Hayastani Hanrapetutyun",
we came across an advert announcing that an auction of farm equipment,
tools, and cars belonging to the community of Tretuk, Gegharkunik Marz,
was to take place on May 19. The announcement included the deadline
for applications and details regarding contacting the community
municipality and a cell phone number. The announcement was signed by
the community mayor.

Even thought the time of the auction wasn’t specified in the
announcement we arrived in Tretuk at 11:00 am on May 19. There were no
notices about the auction at the municipal office. The law stipulates,
however, that the auction organizers must post public information
about the event at least one day before at the site where it is to
take place.

When we asked when the auction was to start Silva Abrahamyan, the
deputy community leader of Tretuk, told us the sale would start at
noon. She said that they had received two bid applications from local
residents. One was from her son, Mikhayil Abrahamyan and the other from
Karo Asatryan. She said that the farm equipment to be auctioned off was
quite old. In the case of one of the tractors, she said that they had
been using it for the past twenty years and had repeatedly petitioned
the community leader to hand over the property rights to them.

She phoned the community head to get more specific information and
to also ask if he was to show up at work or not. Fifteen minutes
later, however, she told us not to wait for the village mayor. He
had supposedly phoned and said that the auction would be postponed
till May 21 since there were no registered bidders.

The mayor describes his deputy’s statements as "gossip"

We decided to wait and get an explanation directly from him. One
hour later, Suren Yeghiazaryan, the community mayor arrived and
told us that today’s auction was being cancelled since there were no
registered bidders.

When we told him that his deputy had given us different information
Mr. Yeghiazaryan shrugged it off as mere village gossip. He said
that Silva Abrahamyan’s son was in Russia and couldn’t possibly
participate in the auction. We asked if it was fair and proper of
him to label his deputy’s information as mere "gossip" and proposed
that Mrs. Abrahamyan be present at our conversation. Mr. Yeghiazaryan
declined, saying that he saw no need for such a meeting.

It is stipulated in the RoA "Bargains Law" that a public notice must
be posted regarding all auctions. The law specifies that eleven pieces
of information must be included in said notice. Most, if not all,
were absent in the notice compiled by the Tretuk municipality. The
following points were missing in the Tretuk notice

1) Time of the auction 2) Title of the auction organizer 3) Address
of the auction organizer 4) Auction rules and procedure 5) Auction
conditions; including lot titles and descriptions. If the lot to be
bided on is an object, its physical condition (wear and tear) and
manufacture date. The starting bid price and other essential details.

Mr. Yeghiazaryan agreed that the auction notice was flawed. He told us
that there were four lots up for auction – two tractors with a start
bid of 419,000 and 312,000 drams, a 219,000 dram dump-truck, and a
22,000 dram trailer. All weren’t included in the notice since they
were quite old, remnants of the collective farm era. Mr. Yeghiazaryan
described them as nothing more than junk metal.

The issue of auctioning off the community’s remaining farm equipment
was taken up at the March 26 session of the community council. The
session is duly registered in the council logs. Mr. Yeghiazaryan told
us that a public advisory meeting was held on May 5 and that local
residents were informed about the upcoming auction. A five-member
auction committee was set up as well. To bolster his argument
that the auction was well advertised, Mr. Yeghiazaryan said the
community receives eleven copies of the "Hayastani Hanrapetutyun"
newspaper. The municipality has a subscription to three copies and the
mayor personally gets one of them. As to where potential bidders must
get information about the lots for sale and auction fees, the answer
is the same; from the community mayor. Potential bidders were forced
to either make their way to the village of Tretuk or Metz Masrik,
where Mayor Suren Yeghiazaryan resides, or to call him at the cell
phone number provided in the notice.

When a public notice offers little or no information

It is no wonder then that all roads leading to auction information
starts and ends with Mayor Yeghiazarayan, who, by the way, is also the
president of the auction committee. However, the committee president
wasn’t able to provide potential bidders with a specific entrance fee,
since he thought that the fee should be 10% of the valuation of each
lot up for bid. The RoA "Bargains Law" states that the entrance fee
must not exceed the starting bid on the most expensive lot up for
bid by 5%. The mayor couldn’t even say what the minimum incremental
bids were to be, arguing that this detail would be decided during
the auction.

We requested to see a copy of the auction regulations but the mayor
said it was locked away in somebody’s fire-proof safe and that
the owner was away on business. When we asked if we could see the
community’s budget, the mayor claimed that it too was locked away in
the same safe.

Mr. Yeghiazaryan told us that the auction committee was to meet
at 3:00 pm that same day to officially register the fact that the
auction had been called off. However, according to Article 15 of the
RoA "Bargains Law", this procedure should take place the following day.

Most probably, this isn’t the first or last auction to be
cancelled. The question remains, what good is publicizing an auction
if it offers little or no information to prospective bidders? Then
too, who is to be held accountable for the fact that the public
notice posted by the Tretuk municipality regarding the auction was
so flawed? Whose duty is it to see that the auction laws are observed
if there aren’t citizens who come forward as prospective bidders and
demand a full accounting as prescribed by the law?

If there are bidders then, by extension, there is no one to complain
about the auction process. In the end, things will remain as they
are. The mayor will reprimand his deputy for carelessly divulging
"internal information" and come the next auction that same deputy
will be less than forthcoming with the facts.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress