On 23 October, 2007, at 15:00, as reported by the Jounralists’ Club “Asparez”, 6 representatives of RA State Taxation Agency visited “GALA” TV and officially informed its founder Vahan Khachatryan that they will visit him again in 3 days time for a “regular inspection”.
The following is the list of visitors:
- Gagik Ohanyan – head of RA State Tax Service first operative investigative unit
- Hovik Havhannisyan – elder oper-officer
- Harutyun Sukiasyan – chief oper-officer
- Armen Hakobyan – oper-officer of RA State Tax Service, Shirak Regional Unit
- Vardges Stepanyan – elder oper-officer
- Samvel Aghababyan – chief oper-officer
The representatives of the State Tax service have been highly polite and respectful. The deadline for the mentioned 3 day period ends on October 26, 15:00.
Chairman of JCA Chouncil Levon Barseghyan
PS: Also see the announcement of the founder of GALA TV Vahan Khachatryan and the announcement of 6 NGOs regarding the developments around GALA TV.
[…] Armenian Observer provides readers with an update on what looks like politically motivated scrutiny of the finances of the Gyumri-based GALA […]
While in Gyumri I decided to find out if the Tax-Police officers have visited GALA again with the inspection as promised, especially after my father told me, that GALA had covered the oposition rally on October 26, where Levon Ter-Petrossian had spoken at length.
Levon Barseghyan, Council Chairman of Gyumri based Journalists’ Club “Asparez” told me, that no inspection has been carried out yet, but that doesn’t meen anything he warned me, when I tried to see connection between LTP’s announcement about running for president and promise to protect his supporters and the delay in inspection. They’ll come on Monday, Levon said, and even if they don’t, the key message to GALA and everybody else has been sent out.
The inspections have started on October 29, 15:00 and is ongoing. The head of GALA TV – Vahan Khachatryan has allocated a crew of journalists to video the whole process of Tax-Police inspection and prepare detailed reports about the process for their evening news program. The Inspection guys have been somewhat frustrated by the fact, but have started the inspection nevertheless. The Armenian version of the report prepared by the Journalists’ Club “Asparez” is here and here.