Failure to Provide Documents Not a Violation of the Law, Says City Hall Spokesman

The Yerevan Defense Front is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Yerevan City Hall. According to the Yerevan Public Transport Company (YPTC), the City Hall has grossly violated the requirements of Article 11 of the RA Law on Freedom of Information by failing to provide information in response to their inquiry. The initiative had sent a written request to the City Hall for access to contracts signed with 'Sanitek' company.

In an interview with ArmDaily.am, City Hall spokesman Hakob Karapetyan stated that the failure to provide documents does not constitute a violation of the law. 'The procedure for providing any legal act or document to a citizen is defined by law and other legal acts. We are dealing with a bilateral contract, where there are conditions for transferring certain information to a third party,' he explained.

Karapetyan noted that given the existence of the lawsuit, the City Hall prefers to consider this fact before providing information. 'It is a bilateral contract, one party has filed a lawsuit and has an issue with the Yerevan City Hall, and the City Hall, as a conscientious partner, finds it appropriate to consider the existence of the dispute when discussing the issue of providing information about the contract.'