Instead of 271 hectares planned for 2020, only 45 hectares have been cleared on the shores of Lake Sevan. The cleaning work was performed by "Harutyunyan Shin" LLC by the order of RA Environment Ministry, whereas the Ministry signed a contract with this company in 2019 to clean 750 hectares of land in 2019-2021. The state budget envisages 208,238.5 thousand AMD from the state budget for the event "Cleaning of water-covered forest landscapes of Lake Sevan".
Due to the incomplete work, "Hydro-Meteorological and Monitoring Center" of Environment Ministry refused to approve the performance act submitted by "Harutyunyan Shin" LLC and unilaterally terminated the contract. The Ministry has initiated to perform that work directly through "Sevan National Park" SNCO.
On July 8, 2021, RA Government reached a decision to redistribute 208,238.5 thousand AMD: out of that amount, 132,570.0 thousand AMD will be directed to the purchase of specialized machinery and special equipment for clearing the water-covered forest landscapes on the shores of Lake Sevan. 25,222.8 thousand AMD will be provided to "Sevan" National Park SNCO for the operation and maintenance of technical means for clearing the water-covered forest areas of Lake Sevan.
As a result, the difference in the amount of 50445.7 thousand AMD will be directed to the reserve fund of RA Government.
It should be reminded that back in 2010, RA Ministry of Nature Protection purchased a Watermaster Classic III multifunctional excavator for 295.6 million AMD to clean the water-covered areas of Lake Sevan. The official media is silent about where the work was performed with the use of that expensive excavator.
In 2019, during the environmental public trial organized by EcoLur on the issues of Lake Sevan, when asked about the condition of the Watermaster excavator, where and how many years it worked, how many years it did not work, why it is not stored, why it was kept in front of the gates of Sevan National Park, Deputy Director of "Sevan National Park" SNCO Arayik Hunanyan answered. "For Watermaster, you can address that question to the Environmental PIU, as the excavator has always been theirs. That year the work of the PIU was completed, so the excavator was left with us for 3-4 months. Then we handed it over to them again. We don't know what happened to the excavator afterwards."
July 08, 2021 at 15:47