Epress.am News from Armenia
Two Armenian organizations dedicated to providing care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS are fighting for a quarter of a million dollar Global Fund grant. The two organizations used to cooperate with each other in their fight against the life-threatening infection; however they subsequently grew estranged amid conflicts that arose after significant cuts to grant funding. The two non-profits, “Positive People Armenian Network” and “Real World, Real People,” had both submitted project proposals for the $245 thousand international grant, with a selection committee in Yerevan subsequently deciding to give the money to the first NGO. “Real World, Real People” went ahead and appealed this decision, accusing the selection committee of bias, as well as of having “insufficient” technical project assessment expertise. “Real World, Real People” have also cited conflict of interest, stating that the wife of Armenia’s Health Minister works at the grant distribution organization, while the winning NGO is associated with the Health Ministry-affiliated AIDS Prevention Center.
An AIDS Prevention Center representative was a member of the selection committee that assessed the project proposals submitted by the two organizations; his vote in favor of the “Positive People Armenian Network” subsequently played a detrimental role in deciding the winner. However, Sam Tadevosyan, the head of “Real World, Real People,” argues it’s unfair that a member of the Ministry-affiliated Center was involved in the selection committee. Tadevosyan claims that every founding member of the winning NGO “used to work at the AIDS [Prevention] Center,” so [their committee representative] “couldn’t have given an impartial assessment.” A clear conflict of interest, the NGO head continues, was overlooked in the process of selecting the committee members.
“At first we didn’t even pass to the next stage of the contest due to some missing documents, which we later, of course, presented. And when we tried to find out who comprised the committee, it turned out that the expert representing the AIDS [Prevention] Center was one of the founders of ‘Positive People.’ Following our complaint, the contest was cancelled, with a new one being announced shortly afterwards. The committee member in question, meanwhile, explained in writing that he did not recall having founded such a NGO. This is a completely illogical argument; how can you forget about founding something?” Sam Tadevosyan told Epress.am.
The new committee was not without its problems, either, Tadevosyan added; “They had included a practising physician with no knowledge and skills required for assessing a project proposal. Besides, his knowledge of English was not sufficient to comprehend or evaluate the submitted documents, which means that either he had been told beforehand how to make the assessment or someone else did it for him,” the NGO head alleged.
Mission East, the grant distribution organization, also had its representative in the selection committee, in spite of the fact that Yelena Amirkhanyan, the organization’s HIV/AIDS project team leader, is the wife of Armenian Health Minister Armen Muradyan.
“Real World, Real People” argue that the Ministry and the AIDS Prevention Center did everything possible to ensure that their preferred contestant won the grant. “The issue is currently being looked into by the supervisory body of the specially formed committee, and we’re still waiting on an answer. We intend to fight for justice to the last,” Sam Tadevosyan said.
Anahit Harutyunyan, head of the “Positive People Armenian Network,” rules out the existence of conflict of interest in the contest. The winning advantage of their project, she said, is its promise of “more coverage for less money.” The NGO, in particular, claims they plan to ensure the best possible support and care for 1300 people with $245 thousand, while the “Real World, Real People” project is willing to do the same for 1100 people with $268 thousand.
Harutyunyan confirmed in an interview with Epress.am that one of the members of the initial selection committee was a founder of their NGO. A fact, the NGO head argued, that couldn’t have played a decisive role in the contest; “This man has never worked with us and has never received any money from us. It’s been 10 years since the founding of the NGO; the State Register [of Legal Entities] needed a list of names, and since we did not have enough members yet, he signed as a founding member. How can that be considered a conflict of interest?”
The organization also submitted a letter of support signed by 98 HIV-positive people as an attachment to their project proposal. “We spoke to each of our beneficiaries individually and told them that we needed their ID information. No one has given their personal information unknowingly. There are also people who signed the letter but refused to provide the info,” Naira Zakaryan, a member of the winning NGO, told Epress.am.
Anahit Harutyunyan added; “Yes, there might have been people who did not understand what they were signing. But they’ve trusted us; we did not force anyone [to sign the support letter], and no one has the moral right to accuse us without any facts.”
Epress.am met with one of the HIV-positive people to have signed the support letter for “Positive People Armenian Network.” The woman said that she was approached by two people at the AIDS Prevention Center who presented themselves as representatives of “Positive People” and asked her to sign a document the content of which they did not disclose.
“These girls asked me whether I had my passport on me. They said they were conducting some checkups and had to see my passport and that of my husband. They had a rather big list [of names]. They logged our passport information, and I signed the paper. One of the girls then said they were in a rush and would inform us about the details later. But they never did. When I phoned ‘Positive People’ and told them that [their representatives] had taken my passport details, they replied that it had been done with the aim of having all the beneficiaries of their organization on record. I objected that I wasn’t one, and they said that form then on I’d receive their full support. So basically I didn’t know what I was signing and only found out much later,” the interviewee said.
A Mission East representative told Epress.am that the losing non-profit appealed the decision on that basis that their project had allegedly received “unfair and biased treatment.” “The Event Coordinating Committee is currently carrying out an investigation to find out what really happened,” Raffi Doudaklyan, the Country Director of Mission East Armenia, said.
Doudaklyan also insisted that their organization’s representative in the selection committee had not been biased toward one project over the other. He confirmed that the wife of the Health Minister was indeed an employee of Mission East; however, Doudaklyan said, she has been working there long before her husband became a minister.
Some at the Event Coordination Committee, the supervisory body of which has already started the probe into the competition and is currently reviewing all related documents, were against HIV-positive Armen Aghajanov being a committee member. “They tried several times to remove me from the supervisory body claiming there was a conflict of interest. I told them, however, that I was registered in both of the competing organizations. Their main complaint was that I had signed the support letter [for ‘Positive People’]. But that doesn’t mean I was for or against anyone. Besides, I represent the community of people living with HIV so I could have had a conflict of interest with either of the organizations,” Aghajanov told Epress.am.
Nevertheless, after much discussion, it was decided at a sitting last week that Aghajanov was allowed to remain on the committee. “A few hours after the sitting, however, I received a call from the secretary and was told that one of the committee members and a former member of the supervisory body had complained about me being in the supervisory body. Whereas the same person had previously said that there was no conflict of interest since I was a beneficiary of both of the organizations. Now, all of a sudden, she is against my membership. She even said she would not accept the final decision if I remained on the body,” Aghajanov, who was, after all, removed from the supervisory body, said.
Despite being registered in “Positive People Armenian Network,” Aghajanov added, he has never actually received any support or services from the non-profit; “I do have information, however, that they claim otherwise in their reports. There has also been talk of them misleading people into giving them their passport information and signing the ‘Positive People’ support letter.”
Arman Aghajanov stressed that people living with HIV/AIDS are the ones that would benefit most from a speedy and fair resolution to the conflict; “It’s dangerous for our community; in the end, no one but us will suffer the consequences.”