Yesterday www.aravot.am inquired of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) what were the results of the competition on the subject Coverage of Elections and Legislature announced this May, who had eventually won, how and who had chosen the winners.
The issue is that in such competitions, particularly when we deal with an international organization and rather attractive awards, competitions are often held formally, announcements are not spread properly, in order not to draw “unnecessary attention.” At the end of the competition, the names of the winners are not announced and serious suspicions arise who has gotten all the prize money. In this case, GIZ hasn’t announced the winners of the competition either and it is not going to do that, although the deadline of the competition was as early as June 14.
We have found out that Ani Chilingaryan is responsible for the competition. She confirmed during a conversation with us that they really hadn’t made a statement, “However, the winners have been informed, have come and received their awards.” In response to our question whether we might know who had won, she asked to call her in 5 minutes after making us wait for a few minutes, then she asked to call in 2 hours and after 2 hours, she gave the following answer, “So, you know, since the competition ended a rather long while ago, we don’t deem appropriate to make public any information regarding that at the moment, particularly given the fact that the project manager is not in Armenia and we cannot provide any data without his knowledge.” It is interesting that on that very day, when their project manager “was not in Armenia,” the head of the same organization had a meeting with Hranush Hakobyan, the Minister of Diaspora, Republic of Armenia. IN ARMENIA.
A few participants in the competition, as well as a few journalists have tried to find out for four months already who has won, based on what principle their work has been assessed, whether there is a record of the competition committee, in which the applications are assessed with certain points or opinions, or whether there has been any competition committee or not. On one occasion, Ani Chilingaryan answered one of the inquirers that she and some Norayr Sargsyan are the committee, at another time, she noted that the composition was secret, at some other time she stated that there had been no need for a jury, they had decided by themselves etc.
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In the end, one of the complaints reached the headquarters of GIZ, Dorothy Hater, the director of corporate communication and the spokesperson for this organization. This fact made Irina Kausch invite the participant to her office to discuss the unclear issues with a letter dated as early as July 31. Dr. Kausch responded to the request of the participant to change the date and time of the meeting only on October 10, 70 days later. The answer was not about the meeting or discussing the unclear issues. She stated that since the competition had taken place long before and there had been no publications on this issue during that time, “it seems that there is no reason for a meeting” and expressed gratitude for spending time.
It is unclear up to now how, nonetheless, this international organization held the competition, what methods it used to choose, whether it voted or compared. Was at least one journalist in the jury of this journalistic competition? In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether she could at least say based on what principles the winners had been chosen, Ani Chilingaryan didn’t give a clear answer, “You know what, I have already told you that I cannot give any other information regarding that. The principles were both in the statement and were announced afterwards.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
