A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
Before proceeding to the agenda, the Prime Minister congratulated newly appointed SRC Chairman Vardan Harutyunyan and State Water Management Committee Head Arsen Harutyunyan, thanked them for readiness to cooperation and wished fruitful work.
Then, the Prime Minister issued a number of instructions: “I am hereby giving the Minister of Education and Science, Marz Governors and the Mayor of Yerevan 7 days to submit proposals for ruling out kinship, nepotism and protectionism while selecting school directors and preventing conflict of interests in public institutions. We should be concerned about the possibility of mother and daughter’s working at the same school. I do not exclude the possibility of such cases, and we must distinguish objective considerations from subjective ones,” the Premier said.
Based on the rural schools development concept, the Head of Government instructed those responsible to implement weekly telecommunication sessions with at least one school outside Yerevan, as well as to develop appropriate training mechanisms for the schools.
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Given the facilities available owing to modern information technology, the Prime Minister underscored that welfare services should be made more accessible. Karen Karapetyan instructed the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs to submit proposals on the possibility of enabling online applications for lump-sum birth allowances and make arrangements for pensions and benefits to be granted through bids submitted to any local division no matter where the beneficiary is domiciled, as well as to analyze the process of assigning pensions and benefits and make recommendations on eventual optimization thereof.
The Prime Minister gave the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs 10 days to look into the efficiency and effectiveness in budget spending made by sporting organizations on sports events and awards and cut back inefficient and unjustified costs. The Minister was also told to submit specific recommendations and an action plan to redistribute the amounts so economized toward popularizing sports and healthy lifestyles nationwide.
The Head of Government asked the heads of all government departments to work more openly and transparently with the press in order to provide the public regular updates on the activities in progress.
The Government amended its decision of September 10, 2015, which streamlines interagency cooperation, addresses the existing controversies, the rights and obligations of the parties.
The amendments cover those cases where a serviceman or a volunteer suffers disability during Armenia’s defense military operations, while performing army duty and in the exercise of specific tasks or where a serviceman or a volunteer dies or is reported missing during military operations, army duty and in the exercise of specific tasks. In all of the aforementioned cases notification is provided to the local welfare office by the registration office within three days.
The Government made a decision to harmonize the already approved lists of goods subject to ban or restrictions in trade with third countries with the decision of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Summary information shall be available on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investment.
The meeting approved a proposal to sign a cooperation agreement in the fields of communication and information between the governments of Armenia and Tajikistan. It will help establish intergovernmental cooperation and build mutually beneficial relations between the two countries.
The Government decided to extend the deadline set for the provision of driver’s licenses to Syrian Armenians until December 31, 2017.