The plan for the state budget of 2019 is being discussed in National Assembly committees. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is holding discussions on how much it needs to pay to join international organizations, as well as expenditure and savings in connection to the Diaspora, which have been decided upon for next year.
President of the Foreign Relations Committee Armen Ashotyan how much money the MFA initially requested and what money has been set aside by the government. Acting Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan said that the ministry requested 15.7 billion dram, and the government set aside 14.9 billion.
Ashotyan also asked, “I have also looked at the amount set aside for business trips. The count for 2018 shows that the amount of money for foreign business trips has increased by 140 percent. Armenian officials have toured more in 2018, increasing the amount of money spent by 140 percent. What mechanism did the Ministry of Finance use to uphold that and how justifiable is the overspending on foreign trips over the past several months?”
Janjughazyan answered that the Ministry of Finance does not decide this. Now it will be asking the Prime Minister. “Regarding your information on business trips, we have needed to spend more on business trips than was initially planned, just as in previous years. I don’t know where you got 140 percent from, because 350 million dram was set aside for business trips in 2018, and the plan still has the amount set at 350 million dram. It’s possible for that to grow throughout the year, just as in previous years. It depends on need. There have been years where this problem was resolved through allocations.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
