On Wednesday, Aravot Daily asked Civil Contract deputy Zaruhi Batoyan, “Ms. Batoyan, in the past, you were the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. The main criticism of the 250,000 AMD that the former parliament allocated towards deputies’ expenses was that making such a decision in a country with difficult socioeconomic conditions where poverty rates are high is rather vulnerable. What observations do you have regarding this?” She responded, “I do not have anything to add after what my colleagues used as a basis in the former parliament, but I want to emphasize something. Of course, there are many socioeconomic problems in this country, but if we simply imagine that amount of money and direct it to those problems, that amount of money is not small, but insignificant. That money will not solve socioeconomic problems. I myself will try to be consistent and support the government’s programs aimed at increasing the effectiveness of social assistance, including increasing benefits, but to say that another social assistance program could be implemented instead of this program, is unreasonable.”
Zaruhi Batoyan also spoke about how she will spend that money. “I will spend all of it on renting a vehicle because I have to use a specially adapted car, which is rare and unique in Armenia.” Upon the observation that maybe in some cases that expense is perceptible, but the deputies’ salaries are already high, and it turns out that something like a bonus is given to the deputies, especially without being sure that they will go to the regions to meet with the voters and spend money, Batoyan responded, “I can only speak about myself, of course. The work I am going to do is not conditioned by my salary. For the rest, how often they will go to the regions- it is not just for going to the regions, it was one of the reasons. It is possible to find out through direct control mechanisms the kinds of activities the deputies carry out. They can carry out their work effectively.”
When we said that there is no such wording in the law that the deputies should be accountable for what they spent that 250,000 AMD on or that they should provide receipts to substantiate the expense, Batoyan answered, “Maybe there are problems with some changes or revisions in this regard. I cannot comment at this time because I do not know the details.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
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