HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN CORNERED
Lragir.am
Country – 24 February 2015, 15:36
Yesterday Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan met with the USAID Acting
Assistant Administrator Susan Fritz and USAID Mission Director Karen
Hilliard. They discussed cooperation between Armenia and USAID.
Currently Armenia solely relies on the U.S. financial and economic
assistance. The USAID officials and the new U.S. Ambassador have
announced that the United States is willing to help Armenia but
Armenia has to improve the climate for investments. In particular,
Armenia must fight money laundering and corruption.
After these statements Hovik Abrahamyan formed some Anti-Corruption
Council which will be coordinated by him. And now USAID wants to
corner Hovik Abrahamyan. According to the press release, USAID has
provided flow-meters to the Ministry of Nature Protection to improve
monitoring of groundwater resources in the Ararat Valley.
Hovik Abrahamyan is known to be closely related to the issue of
thoughtless use of groundwater resources of the Ararat Valley. During
the ex-prime minister’s office some investigation of unauthorized
water wells was carried out. A corruption episode was revealed
featuring Hovik Abrahamyan. Some wells were closed until the end of
the investigation.
However, as soon as Hovik Abrahamyan became prime minister, the issue
of water wells was closed, and water wells were re-opened. Moreover,
Hovik Abrahamyan allocated money from the state budget to “modernize”
these wells.
Apparently, the American government has a humorous attitude to Hovik
Abrahamyan’s anti-corruption initiative and has given the flow-meters
to find out how far the prime minister can go.