Armenia’s government has awarded Doping Space a contract worth nearly $9 million to organize COP17 events, even though the company has yet to settle financial obligations to the state. PAN reported the development, citing Sputnik Armenia.
According to Armenia’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Doping Space owes the ministry more than 500 million drams. The claim includes unused budget funds allocated for Jennifer Lopez’s concert in Yerevan on August 3, 2025, penalties for filing financial reports after the prescribed deadlines, and other obligations set out in the contract.
The ministry said the company has made no payments. It added that on September 25, 2026, Doping Space was again notified in writing that it must either pay within the prescribed period or submit a payment schedule, but no response has been received so far.
Even so, the new contract was awarded through a single-source procurement procedure. The ministry also said that if the company fails to provide the requested information and make the required payments, it will launch “appropriate further proceedings,” without specifying what actions could follow.
Sputnik Armenia also asked the ministry why a clause on the amount of the bank guarantee had been removed from the agreement attached to the contract with Doping Space. The ministry said the agreement was signed on July 31, 2025, while Jennifer Lopez’s concert was scheduled for August 3, meaning there was no longer a need at that stage to submit or enforce a bank guarantee.
The report also recalls that under a government decision dated August 11, 2023, Doping Space received 2 billion 318 million 596 thousand 800 drams to organize a performance by American rapper Snoop Dogg in Armenia as part of the “World Star Tour in Armenia” initiative. At the time, media outlets drew attention to the fact that the company had been established in 2023, just one month before the decision was adopted.
