Social Security 6 employees accused of stealing business trip petrol and travel costs

PanARMENIAN.Net - 6 employees of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs have been charged for stealing petrol and travel costs of their business trips within the case started by the State Social Security Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. The RA Prosecutor General's Office initiated a criminal case on the basis of Article 308 (2) of the RA Criminal Code on 18 October 2018 and sent it to the RA Investigative Committee for preliminary investigation. The preliminary investigation revealed that from January 2014 to September 2017 the service chiefs and the head of the staff gave appropriate orders on the basis of oral applications of the SATS employees for providing service vehicles with fuel for business trips and travels to different territorial divisions of the Service. Based on this, a total of 9307 liters of petrol was provided. However, the preliminary investigation revealed that the Service staff did not actually go on business trips. Instead, with fraudulent motives they stole the provided petrol, causing the government to pay a total of AMD 3.567 million substantial amount of damage. The factual data obtained also confirmed that the employees of the Service had been provided with Service Attorney fake certificates confirming the fact that they had been sent to the relevant territorial divisions, (in a form of an official documents approved by the signature and seal of the territorial divisions). Based on these, a total of AMD 636,400 was stolen by deception. Based on sufficient evidence, six employees of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (head of Information Technology and Risk Management Department, Head of Economic Division, 2 Chief Specialist, Head, Advisor) were charged for theft of travel costs and petrol for visits to regional offices according to Part 1, Article 1.1, Part 2, Article 3, Article 178, Part 1, Article 325, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code. The damage caused by the recorded violations has been completely restored. The preliminary investigation is currently in process.