Armenian acting Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has denied any wrongdoing after a local online magazine published a story alleging his possible involvement in a corruption scheme.
On October 29, Hetq.am reported that the company founded by Avinian had won a $35,000 grant from the Agricultural Development Fund at the time when the latter already occupied the post of Armenia’s vice-premier.
The publication further noted that the Fund’s director Gegham Gevorkian was appointed Armenia’s minister of agriculture in October.
On November 1, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told journalists that he had ordered an examination of the case. “I will draw my own conclusion based on the results of that examination. I do have explanations, but I want it to be clear that there can be no manifestation of corruption in Armenia,” said the popular leader, who vowed to battle corruption when he came to power on the wave of anti-government protests in May.
Talking to media on the margins of a production exhibition on Friday, Avinian ruled out any corrupt practice on his part, insisting that the fruit-drying company founded by him in 2011 went through a rigorous selection process, most of which was completed even before the Pashinian team came to power.
“There can be no conflict of interests here. Our company applied for that program in February. Nine of the 10 stages of the selection process were completed before the revolution, and I was even mostly unaware of the process. The ultimate 10th stage took place a few days after I was appointed deputy prime minister,” Avinian explained.
Acting Minister of Agriculture Gegham Grigorian also denied any role in providing the grant to the company linked with Avinian. He also ruled out any link between his appointment and the Fund’s decision on grants. “I have worked in this field for two years and was the director of a fund that is one of the largest structures within the ministry. Before that I worked in the government system for 10 years,” he said, implying that his appointment was a merit-based decision.
Acting Deputy Prime Minister Avinian, meanwhile, welcomed the probe ordered into the case by Pashinian, saying that it will help officials stay more vigilant and will reveal some bad practices in the media field as well.
“The morals that used to exist in the political field [before the power change] were also present in the media field, and I don’t exclude that some corruption continues in the media field even now. In general, different stories have been published about me, about different officials, and I do have some reasonable suspicions that some of these stories have been ordered,” Avinian said, without giving names.
The row over the company linked with Avinian followed another publication that alleged that the 29-year-old deputy prime minister smoked marijuana inside the government building. Avinian’s office denied that information and announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the media outlet that published the report over libel.
On Friday, Avinian said that libel suits against media will not be “a consistent policy.” “It was a concrete case, and I hope that it will also send a message to certain websites and media outlets disseminating misinformation that such activities are not just unreasonable, but may also result in liability,” the senior official said.
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