Parliament supply staffer arrested for faking commemorative medals

 12:36,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. An official in charge of supplying the Parliament of Armenia staff with gold-plated silver commemorative medals for awarding occasions has been arrested in suspicion of embezzlement.

The Investigative Committee said the Head of the Administrative Supply Department of the National Assembly Staff is in custody for supplying fake medals. Authorities said they were investigating a report on the alleged misconduct since June 24 after being tipped off by another staffer.

According to preliminary information staffers at the parliament have violated the law on procurement from 2015 to 2017.

All medals at the parliament’s warehouse have been confiscated and the apartments of employees of the parliament’s staff have been searched.

The arrested staffer has caused nearly 10,000,000 drams in damages by his actions, according to authorities.

The suspect collaborated with one of his acquaintances who happens to be a jeweler, and awarded him the official tender to supply the commemorative coins (278 units of the Commemorative Medal of the National Assembly President and 75 units of the National Assembly Medal of Honor). The jeweler was paid more than 12 million drams. However, the latter supplied the parliament’s staff with fake medals with each having the cost of around 4000 drams and being made from copper and zinc.

A lab test confirmed that the medals are gold-plated cheap fakes.

The Head of the Administrative Supply Department has been arrested on September 19 on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement.

 Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan