New Violations Discovered by the State Monitoring Service

Based on information received from the Prime Minister's Office of the Republic of Armenia and the Committee of Cadastre, the State Monitoring Service of Armenia has conducted ongoing monitoring regarding the leasing of land plots belonging to state and/or community property, and subsequently subleasing them to telecommunications operators.

The ongoing monitoring revealed that in many cases, land plots owned by the state and/or community were initially leased out by community leaders for significantly low rent and then, shortly after (in some cases within a day or a few days), the lessee subleased that property (or part of it) to telecommunications operators at rental prices that were dozens or even a hundred times higher.

For instance, in one community, a 1,200 square meter plot of land owned by the community was leased for an annual fee of 2,000 AMD, while 200 square meters of that plot was subleased to a telecommunications operator at an annual rate of 1,020,000 AMD, which is around 500 times higher. In another case, a 10,000 square meter plot was leased for an annual fee of 4,540 AMD and then subleased on the same day for 480,000 AMD, approximately 100 times higher.

It is significant to note that in some of the examined transactions, there is a clear connection between the lessor, namely the community leader, and the lessee. Specifically, there are cases where the lessees of the leased land plots from the community are family members of the community leaders, registered at the same address, or have familial or friendly ties.

The report compiled from the ongoing monitoring has been sent to the Prosecutor's Office of Armenia to verify the existence of any criminal offenses.