More Than 11 Million Manats in Irregularities Detected in the Construction of Shusha Central Hospital

According to an audit conducted by the Chamber of Accounts, more than 11 million manats in financial and legal irregularities were identified during the first phase of the construction of the Shusha Central District Hospital. The audit revealed artificial inflation of project costs, payments for work that was not performed, procurement of equipment not included in the original estimates, and violations of public procurement procedures. The report states that the contract value was artificially increased by 3.5 million manats at the initial stage.

The main contractor for the project was Farid Construction Company. The investigation found that the prices of certain works and equipment had been overstated by more than 2.5 million manats, while work valued at 7.9 million manats, although documented as completed, had not been fully implemented in practice. The audit also noted that in some cases the Ministry of Health carried out works and services without conducting procurement procedures.

As a result of the audit, 716,800 manats that had been overpaid to the contractor were returned to the state budget, while the transfer of an additional 2.3 million manats planned for payment was suspended.