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WORLD BANK DOES NOT HAVE EVIDENCES OF DECEPTION

Economy

"The World Bank does not have evidences of deception or inadequate management on the Yerevan water supply program", announced Aristomene Varoudakis, Head of the Yerevan Office of the World Bank reflecting on the British engineer’s accusations.

The World Bank allocated 35 million drams for the improvement of Yerevan water supply, but according to the British “Observer” newspaper “it had shifted to installing water meters instead and contractors were able to pocket up to $10 profit on the sale of each meter by charging customers for installation”.

”Bruce Tasker, is a British engineer appointed by an Armenian parliamentary commission investigating the Yerevan scheme. He claims that as soon as he began to examine the details of the project, it became clear that it was riddled with corruption, “from start to finish, from top to bottom. The fact is it was not an isolated case of a few thousand dollars here or there, it was tens of millions of dollars”.”

The mentioned ad-hoc commission started to work at the end of 2003 and in the beginning of 2004 headed by Vahan Hovhanissyan. Why does Tasker raise the problem of corruption only now?

“We have no definite answer as why this problem has emerged again, since this story was concluded for us”, said Aristomene Varoudakis. According to him, Tasker has turned to the World Bank's Institutional Integrity Department. “It is completely an independent judicial body, and is responsible only to the Chairman of the World Bank and has nothing in common with other project departments and sectors. We do not know whether this investigation is underway or not, since the investigation will begin after receiving appeal and coming out of the financial resources”.

As the British newspaper says, the British Ambassador in Armenia has written to the World Bank, urging it to carry out a full investigation. Mr Varoudakis pointed out that the Ambassador’s letter was addressed not to the World Bank Office but to this department asking to respond to “the alleged accusations that were reflected in Mr Tasker’s letter”. Mr Varoudakis mentioned that the water meters were not the objective of the program, but were its consistent part. “Only due to them we managed to raise the 18 percent of recruitment to 79 percent. The water supply would never be in an appropriate condition in Armenia if the recruitment percent was not raised. Only 1,3 percent of the program’s 35 million USD was allocated to that”, added Mr Varoudakis.

The press secretary of the British Embassy in Armenia Armine Grigoryan informed “A1+” that according to the UK Bribery and Corruption Law all British embassies in the world are obliged to account the British government about the corruption cases, just as the British Embassy in Armenia has done”.

“In its letter to the World Bank, the British Embassy in Armenia expressed hope that the investigation of Bank's Institutional Integrity Department will be carried out properly. The Embassy did not urge or order the Bank to carry out the investigation. We do not want and we cannot carry out an investigation or order it”, pointed out Armine Grigoryan.

We should mention that the British Ambassador Anthony Cantor sent the letter on 29 May and as Armine Grigoryan ensures: “The Ambassador does not expect any respond to his letter. But we are aware that the World Bank is engaged in the settlement of this problem”.

The press secretary of “Yerevan Water” Murad Sargsyan informed “A1+”: “I want to remind you that the “Yerevan Water” French organization started to work on 1 June 2006 and had nothing to do with the previous program that was financed by the World Bank”. Previously, “Yerevan Water” was headed by the Italian “Utility” Company.