Vanadzor Medical Center Director and Parliamentary Candidate Raises Salaries for 370 Employees

The Elections Monitoring Committee has issued a statement. The committee identified a post by Vahagn Mkrtchyan, the director of the Vanadzor Medical Center and a candidate for the Civil Contract party, regarding the raise of salaries for approximately 370 employees by 10-20% since June, with assistance from two other candidates of the same party (the regional governor and the acting Minister of Health).

This questionable mid-budget year salary increase raises concerns about whether it constitutes electoral bribery. To appropriately assess this issue, a parliamentary inquiry has been made in the name of the Elections Monitoring Committee with the following questions:

• 1) What assistance was provided by the parliamentary candidates from the Civil Contract list, the governor, and the acting minister?
• 2) What is the source of the financial support?
• 3) What justifies the salary increases starting from June, given that the budget typically gets approved at the end of the previous year and all expenditure components are already established before the start of the new year?