Hayastan All Armenia Fund Toronto affiliate chair person Mgirdich Mgrdichian issued an announcement in response to Tuesday’s arrest in Yerevan of Hayastan All Armenia Fund’s executive director, Ara Vardanyan, on charges of misusing of funds from the organization. On Thursday, Ara Vardanyan was released from custody awaiting the end of the investigation on bail.
Below is the text of Mgrdichian’s statement:
As the founding chair of Hayastan Foundation Toronto as well as a sizeable DONOR I would like to bring the following points to your attention:
1) Hayastan Foundation Toronto is an independent Canadian charitable organization. We use Armenia Fund’s Yerevan office as our “Agent” to implement our selected and approved construction projects. We are free to use another organization in Hayasdan/Artsakh to implement our projects, any time.
2) All these years, Toronto donations have always gone towards specific projects with specific fixed-cost construction budgets. We have never sent funds to Yerevan for general purpose activities.
3) Toronto has a separate bank account with the Agent, where funds are sent and specifically allocated for our defined projects, after receiving progress reports and invoices.
4) We have to-date completed 72 (seventy-two) specific projects, which you can visit and see on location. The lists and the maps are available.
5) I personally visit each and every major site, old and new, and report back to you and to our donors, at least annually. Last May, I visited 36 (thirty-six) sites in Artsakh and 4 (four) in Hayasdan.
6) Our books are audited by an independent third party accounting company, KRP LLP.
