The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, being faithful to the principle of eliminating various manifestations of corruption, as a result of operational and search measures and investigative activities undertaken within the functions vested upon it by the law and aimed at countering corruption, received factual information according to which the Chairman of the Urban Development Committee, being an official, using official position against the service interests and proceeding from personal interest, according to the agreements reached with the persons carrying out construction works or with the representatives of real estate development companies, on five occasions, in exchange for receiving, personally or through a person close to him, a bribe in large and especially large amounts – AMD 1.000.000-2.500.000, in the form of money, commodities and materials − during 2019 committed acts for their benefit or facilitated the rapid adoption and provision of favorable decisions.
Having a purpose to conceal the fact of receiving a bribe, violating the legal ban on carrying out entrepreneurial activities, he established a limited liability company dealing with engineering works in the name of his close person and, in order to receive a material advantage, instructed the real estate developers and individuals who applied to him to make transactions with the mentioned company, taking measures for adoption of favorable decisions by the state and local self-government bodies based on the documents drawn up by the above-noted company.
Besides, on 23 October 2019, during the meeting in his office, the chairman of the Urban Development Committee came to an agreement about representing the owner of several construction companies for the title of the Distinguished Construction Worker of Armenia, in exchange for that receiving USD 5000 (equivalent to AMD 2.379.950) and construction material- worth around AMD 2.300.000.
Within the framework of the criminal case −initiated on the fact of apparent crimes in the Investigation Department of the RA NSS, according to the corresponding articles of the Criminal Code of RA− the persons who had committed the alleged crime were brought in and three of them, including the chairman of the mentioned committee, were detained. Besides, while being interrogated as a suspect the official who had received the bribe confessed having committed the crime. Preliminary investigation is underway.

Note: The suspect or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent as long as his/her guilt is not proven in a manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RA-by the court decision entered into legal force.