“It is a message to businesses that you are all under pressure. We will do whatever we want.” This is what leaders of business associations are saying about the actions taken against the GG company.
According to Vahram Mirakyan, president of the “Mantashyants” Businessmen’s Union, the investigative actions against the GG online taxi service were a negative message, regardless of the basis for them.
“It was a message to businesses that arbitrary things can be done with them, creating an atmosphere of mistrust. Businesses are starting to feel insecure, too. And when businesses do not feel safe, they go where they feel safer,” Mirakyan said in a conversation with Aravot.am.
Vahram Mirakyan
On June 15, law enforcement agencies conducted operations at the GG taxi company, confiscating all the computers. The lawyer of the company claimed that the actions of the law enforcement officers were illegal because, according to the court’s decision, only the computers of a few employees should have been confiscated, along with searches related to the activities of those few employees, instead of taking all the company’s computers. According to the lawyer, these actions against the company are political persecution.
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Before this search, the founder of the company announced that he supports the “Tavush for the Motherland” movement.
The Investigative Committee also announced that the criminal proceedings against the company were initiated in May of last year, on the grounds of tax evasion. “The preliminary investigation has continued throughout this period. As part of this, searches were carried out yesterday, which is a standard operating procedure. The statements that the criminal proceedings initiated against the company are groundless and illegal do not correspond to reality” .
According to Vahram Mirakyan, these investigative actions are a message to businesses, international companies, companies in the IT sector, and various economic associations: “It seems they are announcing that you are all under pressure and we will do whatever we want. Of course, they forget about the presumption of innocence. In the future, it may turn out that there is nothing. There have been such cases. But it doesn’t matter; they come to disrupt the company’s activities, etc. This is a very bad trend, and it shows that democratic processes are not taking place in the economy; rather, they are moving with dictatorial approaches. Business is often seen as a cash cow, with which different things can be done at different times.”
Hakob Avagyan, the co-founder of the SME Association and the chairman of the Public Assembly NGO, also mentioned that the issue regarding the GG company is of concern to the association, and after studying the problem and talking to the owner of the company, they will issue a statement.
Hakob Avagyan
According to Avagyan, the association has been saying for years that an institute for the protection of business interests should be introduced. In the government plan formed in 2018, there was a provision for introducing a business ombudsman institute. Previous governments also included something similar in their plans. However, it was never implemented. “When I asked the representatives of this government whether they were finally introducing the business ombudsman institute or not, they said: what do we need it for? Լegality rules in our country, and the Ministry of Economy is the business ombudsman.”
According to Avagyan, a state agency cannot be the protector of business interests. In Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and other countries, there has been such an institute for a long time, specifically for such cases.
“If we follow the example of today’s Human Rights Defender, I don’t know how it would work even if we had a business defender. We encounter the same problem: the solutions are personalized. That’s why these institutions don’t work.”
Nelly BABAYAN
