Why did Armenian authorities initiate audits of 'Electric Networks' and State Commission?

The Armenian authorities will conduct an audit not only of the Electric Networks of Armenia company, but also of the State Commission on Regulation of Public Services, Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan said.

The government will be subsidizing the increased electricity price on the budget funds until the audit results. If the audit reveals that the increase was not substantiated, the government will recompense the money spent at the expense of ENA.

The head of the Armenian government staff, David Harutiunyan, said that an audit company will be selected from the ten best organizations in the world, Interfax reports.

The director of the Caucasus Institute, Alexander Iskandaryan, told Vestnik Kavkaza that such a move by the country's leadership should be considered as a search for ways out of the crisis gripping the country. "The authorities cannot refuse tariffs, because the tariffs are determined by a company which distributes electricity, but they can affect it somehow. This is an attempt to get out of the crisis. I mean those recent meetings. This is a situation that the government is trying to unlock in some way. It's an attempt to transfer relations with the protesters to some negotiating channel, an attempt to achieve some compromise, to understand how it is possible to unblock the situation," the expert said.

The Director of the Armenian branch of the CIS Institute, Alexander Makarov, in his turn, said that the decision to conduct an audit has no political component. "It should show the real situation, the state of affairs. It will be decided on the basis of audit assessments whether the Electric Networks of Armenia's proposal to increase tariffs was objective and whether the State Commission raised the cost of services to consumers by 17%  on the basis of the expert conclusion being objective. Its goal is not a political or some other indulgence, but providing an objective expert assessment of the state of affairs," he explained.