MP HRANT GRIGORYAN: "I NEVER GIVE INTERVIEWS"
Grisha Balasanyan

yan/
2010/03/08 | 15:24

Feature Stories society

Hetq is starting a series highlighting various members of the RoA
National Assembly. This week we would like to bring to your attention
MP Hrant Grigoryan who represents District 20 in Armavir Marz.

For the past month, Hetq reporter Natasha Harutyunyan has attempted
to organize an interview with MP Hrant Grigoryan. He has never made
a speech on the floor of parliament and once told a reporter that he
doesn’t give interviews.

Apparently, many MP’s still don’t understand what their role in
government is. Their main ambition seems to be to win a seat in the
legislative body and thus safeguard their business interests. We
will present them as they are. To avoid conjecture and unverified
information, we ask MP’s to meet with our reporters.

New financial disclosure law offers loopholes for officials

In past Hetq articles we touched upon Government Act N1065, adopted on
September 4, 2008. It spells out the parameters of public disclosure of
"Property and income of government officials" via the mass media.

The new act superseded Government Act N304, adopted in 2002, dealing
with the public disclosure of property and revenue of top heads of
Armenian government bodies and their legal relatives.

The new law does not require public disclosure of those legally
related to government officials as of January 1, 2010.

Also not subject to disclosure are the amounts of buildings, structures
and real estate obtained during the year. In addition, prior to the
new law, information was disclosed regarding the assets of officials
after such notices.

Presently, only information regarding an official’s cash income and
purchased or sold fixed and moveable property is disclosed.

The State Revenue Committee informed Hetq that contrary to the RoA
Law on "The notice of property and revenue of top RoA government
body officials", created as a practical mechanism to fight against
corruption and misuse of power, the RoA regarding "The declaration
of property and revenues of natural person", in addition to pursuing
the above aims also pursues a taxation objective

Not only government officials but a certain group of "natural persons"
file declarations, including those that revenue reports according
to the RoA Law on Revenues. Taking into account that the group
filing declarations is getting larger, including "natural persons",
declarations are also serving a tax function. And for tax purposes
it is necessary to have figures not about the existence of property
but rather about property transactions. The law stipulates declaring
property sales and purchases during the year.

Hetq

MP’s continue to engage in business

Even though Article 65 of the RoA Constitution prohibits MP’s
from holding any other public office, nor engage in any other paid
occupation, except for scientific, educational and creative work,
a majority continue to do so and do not declare revenues from these
activities.

Most people in Etchmiadzin, the National Assembly and in government
know that MP Hrant Grigoryan, a member of the Armenian Republican
Party, has a successful business.

However, according to his 2008 financial declaration, he made no
business transactions, had no properly, but had revenues of over 184
million AMD.

Mr. Grigoryan’s disclosure figure don’t add up

MP Grigoryan, according to the declaration, purchased no fixed or
non-fixed assets during the year. Neither were there any sales. But
he still had revenues flowing in. The National Assembly accounting
office told Hetq that MP’s receive a 300,000 monthly salary.

Thus, just based on his monthly salary, MP Grigoryan should have
wound up with annual revenues of 3.6 million AMD. What he actually
declared was 51 times as much as his stated salary.

What isn’t noted in the disclosure is that MP Grigoryan is a member
of the "Etchmiadzin Buat" company, a transportation provider in
Etchmiadzin in addition to commuter transport between the town and
Yerevan.

MP Grigoryan owns a gas station next to "Buat", the Golden City Hotel
across the street, a nearby store and the Golden City Restaurant, built
in 2009 at the entrance to the village of Tzaghkunk, Armavir Marz.

According to our information, MP Grigoryan also owns several
hectares of farm land in his native village of Arshalyus, Armavir
Marz. Given that the mayor of Arshalyus turns out to be the brother
of MP Grigoryan, we couldn’t get any specifics on how much land the
MP owns there.

Who’s auditing the auditors?

We asked the State Revenue Committee if anyone actually checks the
veracity of financial declarations filed by officials. We were told
that audits of declarations are carried out only when called for by
the law.

Thus, we can safely conclude, that there is no government agency,
including the tax department that actually audits the financial
disclosures of ordinary citizens, let alone those filed by officials.

As a result, there is no way of verifying the amount of revenue and
property being hidden.

Given the situation, the government’s rush to pass a new law makes
no sense, since the formulation of the new disclosure doesn’t really
pursue a "tax objective". On the contrary, it especially allows top
officials the possibility of avoiding any full disclosure of revenues.

Given that there is no oversight, such a conclusion becomes all the
more probable.

Our source within the Armavir Regional Authority reports that MP
Hrant Grigoryan owns land in the communities of Arshalyus, Samaghar,
Haytagh, Aknalij and Geghakert.

The same source says that most of the property is registered in
the name of MP Grigoryan’s brother, Zarzand Grigoryan, the mayor of
Arshalyus. Some of the property deeds have simply remained in the
names of the previous owners.

For example, Geghakerd Mayor Seryozha Arakelyan told Hetq that MP
Grigoryan didn’t own any property in the village, but that his brother
Zarzand owns 1.4 hectares.

The question remains – what is the MP up to in the National Assembly?

Neither he nor any of his colleagues wished to speak to us on the
issue.

We don’t know whether MP Grigoryan ever goes out to meet with his
constituents. When we paid a visit to Election District 20, we couldn’t
find one voter who had actually met with the MP to lodge a complaint
or petition.

We are still waiting for The State Revenue Committee to tell us the
amount of taxes paid by MP Grigoryan’s various businesses.