Armenian Deputy Minister May Have Conflict of Interest in Ski Resort Project

The wife of Armenia’s Deputy Minister of the Economy received in 2023 a salary from a company that plans to develop a ski resort on the country’s tallest mountain. Meanwhile, her husband played a crucial role in the success of the company’s bid and coordinated the larger investment project.

That’s an “obvious conflict of interest” according to an expert. No, it’s not, both the company and the Ministry of Economy say.

A French-language Armenian outlet Le Courrier d’Erevan published a document showingthat in August 2021, Deputy Minister of the Economy Narek Teryan was appointed head of a working group tasked with evaluating two competing projects for the development of Mount Aragats, located about 40 kilometers northwest of the country’s capital Yerevan.

In October of that year, he visited Russia and met with Russian businessman Ruben Grigoryan, the owner of Armenian-registered RID LLC, whose bid eventually won out.

On March 2, 2023, the government had issued a decision approving RID LLC’s investment plan for the development of Mount Aragats, Armenia’s tallest mountain peak. The decision allowed RID LLC to purchase the land which it will need for its proposed project, which includes a ski resort and space for numerous family farms.

According to the Ministry, Yulia Teryan began her employment with RID LLC two months later in May 2023.

In her latest declaration of property, income, and interests, the Deputy Minister’s wife reported receiving just over US$8,000 as a salary from an Armenian company called RID LLC in 2023. While this may not sound like a lot, the average monthly wage in Armenia is currently about US$725, according to the national Statistical Committee.

In an interview with Golos Armenii last year, Grigoryan praised Teryan as one of the few people in the Armenian government who provided “serious support” to the project and “fixed all the government’s mistakes.” Teryan continues to oversee the project as coordinator of the overarching Aragats investment program, the Ministry of the Economy told Civilnet.

Armenia’s law on public service defines a conflict of interest as “a situation when a person holding a position performs an action or makes a decision while exercising their powers, which can reasonably be interpreted as being guided by the personal interests of themselves or a person related to them.”

Civilnet reached out to Narek Teryan for comment. A response signed by the Ministry’s Secretary General Haykaz Nasibyan denied any conflict of interest, claiming that Yulia Teryan’s job at RID LLC has nothing to do with Aragats.

“Considering the fact that Narek Teryan was appointed two years after discussions of the Aragats investment project began, and considering that his wife, Yulia Teryan, performs duties unrelated to the Aragats project at RID and had no official decision-making authority, there could not be a conflict of interest in this case,” the letter reads.

RID LLC also denied any possible conflict of interest.

“The personnel policy of the company is not based on where the applicant’s husband or wife works, or what position they hold,” RID LLC’s General Manager Arsen Harutyunov wrote in a letter to Civilnet.

However, Project Manager at Transparency International Armenia Varuzhan Hoktanyan told Civilnet that the situation “raises serious concerns.”

“The most obvious conflict of interest is that his [Teryan’s] wife works in a company involved in a program coordinated by her husband, the Deputy Minister,” Hoktanyan said. “There is a reasonable suspicion that the Deputy Minister’s decision in favor of RID may be related to his wife’s future employment at RID.”

In their letter, the Ministry admitted that Yulia Teryan is employed by RID LLC as part of another project called Parajanov Club House, a planned 27-story luxury apartment complex currently under construction in the center of Armenia’s capital, Yerevan. On the official Parajanov Club House Facebook page, a photo shows Narek Teryan at a gala event where the project was presented on March 31 last year, having a drink and laughing with the owner of RID LLC, Ruben Grigoryan.

The competing bid for the ski resort was designed by Aragate Investments in collaboration with the French company Société des Trois Vallées, which operates the famous ski resort Courchevel in the French Alps.

After their bid was rejected, the director of Société des Trois Vallées, Pascal de Thiersant, claimed in an interview with the Armenian branch of Radio Liberty that RID LLC’s plans were unworkable and that “the people who drew up that project probably had never been to Aragats in their life, maybe they had never even been to a ski resort.” Thiersant did not respond when contacted by journalists.

In response to a query from Civilnet, the Ministry of Economy claimed to have no protocols of the meetings of the project commission or any record of the members’ votes.

“It seems incredible to me that these records and evaluations are missing,” Varuzhan Hoktanyan of TI Armenia told Civilnet. “The refusal to provide the records is suspicious.”

A search of open sources shows that Ruben Grigoryan’s companies have built residential and office buildings in Russia, Armenia, and other countries. In April of this year, RID LLC reportedly abandoned a project to renovate a children’s amusement park in Yerevan after failing to get the necessary government approval. Reporters were unable to find any evidence that RID LLC has experience developing or operating a ski resort.