ArmInfo. The RA Ministry of Health denies the existence of a conflict of interest when concluding agreements with the MIBS company.
On her Facebook page, press secretary of the ministry Alina Nikoghosyan noted in particular: " In this issue, we do not see a real conflict of interest, since the Minister or his family members are not members of this LLC, and also did not receive any other property improvement thanks to the concluded agreements with the ministry. This is an apparent clash of interests. These agreements are not subsidies or donations to organizations, but are agreements on the provision of medical services within the framework of the state order, through which the RA citizens who are entitled to this receive medical services. The procedure for placing a state order in organizations that provide medical services is the same for all organizations that provide such services. The minister or his representative will present his arguments to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, if necessary>.
To recall, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption initiated proceedings against Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan on the basis of a clear conflict of interest.
The proceedings are based on the data of data.hetq.am, according to which the Ministry of Health signed agreements on the provision of services with the MIBS Company, the director of which is Arsen Torosyan's wife, Vardanush Tevanyan. According to the source, after the appointment of Torosyan as Minister in May 2018, the Ministry of Health signed 5 agreements with MIBS for a total of 124 million drams. Meanwhile, prior to his appointment to this position, two agreements on the provision of services were concluded between the Ministry and MIBS.
"MIBS" (Medical Institute named after Sergei Berezin, former Medical Diagnostic Center of the International Institute of Biological Systems - MDC MIBS), was established in 2003 with the attraction of only private investment. The main activity is the creation of a network of diagnostic centers in the Russian Federation and neighboring countries to provide the population with high-tech methods of diagnosis and treatment. Earlier, the Yerevan branch of MIBS was headed by Arsen Torosyan.