650,000 Dram Salary New Jobs Created Amid Luxurious Spending

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that despite the socio-economic issues present in Armenia and Artsakh after the Artsakh war, the authorities in Armenia continue to make expenditures that raise eyebrows in this situation.

Firstly, the National Assembly is set to discuss the establishment of an Anti-Corruption Committee during the session starting on January 18, allocating 8 billion drams to this body for only two years. Of this amount, about 5.1 billion will go towards salaries, utility, and office expenses, more than 0.5 billion for building conditions, 285.5 million for technical equipment, and 192 million drams for transportation equipment. The salaries of the committee's staff will approximately amount to 650,000 drams before taxes, whereas the chairman's salary will be about 700,000 drams. In other words, this new investigative body, which is supposed to deal with exposing corruption cases, will cost 8 billion drams.

Additionally, according to David Khajakyans, the head of the "Luyis" faction of the Yerevan Council, as per the decision of Yerevan Mayor Haik Marutyan, 24 million drams are allocated from the "Yerevan" foundation to the individual entrepreneur Anahit Sukiasyan for the purpose of covering 100 Gazelle vehicles in accordance with a developed design. As described by the council member, this is 24 million drams for 'wrapping' the Gazelles. Moreover, Mayor Haik Marutyan is on a 'chronic' vacation, and there is no explanation as to why this substantial amount was awarded to that particular entrepreneur.

Another fact to note: in just December, the employees of the RA Investigative Committee received awards totaling around 250,000 USD, while in 2020, the overall bonuses allocated to staff of the RA Investigative Committee amounted to 2,663,320 USD. Meanwhile, in this situation, the funds should have been directed towards addressing the needs of those citizens who have become homeless in Artsakh.

For more details, refer to today's edition of the newspaper.