2-7 million bonuses in the Ministry of Finance of Armenia

The newspaper "168 Hours" reports: "The topic of astronomical bonuses for the senior management of state agencies from the state budget has rightly provoked dissatisfaction among broad segments of society. Recently, it became known that Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan allocated 474 million drams or 974 thousand USD from the city budget in 2018 to reward dozens of employees of the city hall. This was followed by bonuses allocated by the State Revenue Committee of Armenia, according to which the leadership of the SRC and officials who came to power with them received huge bonuses ranging from 1.5 million drams to 9.6 million drams.

The topic of bonuses continues to remain in the public eye. All political forces in the country, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have addressed the issue.

Bonuses in state structures are generally considered a normal practice. However, as the people say, everything is beautiful in moderation. According to 168.am sources, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has also decided to take the lead in this matter and not yield to colleagues. Specifically, our sources in the ministry report that salaries and bonuses in December were distributed as follows:

1. Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan - 5 million 480 thousand drams,
2. Deputy Minister of Finance Arman Poghosyan - 5 million 22 thousand 100 drams,
3. Deputy Minister of Finance Karen Brutyan (a student of Atom Janjughazyan) - 7 million 017 thousand drams,
4. MoF Chief Secretary Vazgen Harutyunyan - 4 million 819 thousand drams,
5. Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan - 2 million 522 thousand drams,
6. Deputy Chief Secretary of MoF Arman Adilkhanian - 3 million 497 thousand drams,
7. Department Head of MoF Vahagn Arshakyan - 2 million 735 thousand drams,
8. Head of the Procurement Department of the MoF Sergey Shahnazaryan - 3 million 309 thousand drams,
9. Head of the Budget Process Management Department of MoF Lala Ananikyan - 3 million 619 thousand drams,
10. Press Secretary of the MoF Anna Vardanyan - 2 million drams,
11. Assistant to the Minister of Finance Tatevik Petrosyan - 2 million 577 thousand,
12. Department Head Edgar Mkrtchyan (the son of the sister of the Minister of Finance's student) - 2 million 725 thousand drams,
13. Deputy Head of the Financial Budget Department of MoF Varujan Badanyan - 3 million 236 thousand.

It should be noted that bonuses have never been this high in any department, including the Ministry of Finance of Armenia."