Electric Networks of Armenia fined 20 million AMD

At its sitting today, Armenia’s State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) imposed a fine of 20 million drams on Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) CJSC, based on an application of residents of building No 1/3 on Tsitsernakaberd Highway.

In particular, the residents complained that although the construction of their building was completed 4 years ago, the residents could not move to their new apartments due to the absence of power supply.

The building residents applied to ENA Company, which did not take measures to solve this problem.

The commission said that ENA is not authorized to use its own discretion to deal with the problem of residents’ power supply.

On the commission’s demand, ENA provided an explanation. The company said that an agreement on technological connection work had been signed with the construction company – Millar OJSC, but the work was not completed due to non-fulfilment of financial obligations of 15 million drams.

The residents were offered to pay 138,000 drams each for connection to the network, but the necessary sum was not collected because owners from the Diaspora were absent and also because of the fact that not all apartments in the building were sold.

The residents were also surprised that ENA signed an agreement without making a payment to Millar, including a prepayment for construction of a substation.

They suspect that ENA and Millar OJSC came to an agreement to collect this sum from residents later. There have been such cases when residents of newly-constructed buildings had to pay instead the builder.

After residents had complained to the commission, ENA Company sued them for debt payment, whereas it did not take any measures in the past three years to receive 15 million drams from Millar Company.

The SCPEC has ordered Electric Networks of Armenia to sign an agreement on power supply with the residents within 7 days.