Is 700,000 drams a low salary for members of parliament, and do they really need a 3-million-dram bonus? There is no straightforward answer. It depends on the level of luxury they have grown accustomed to, the kinds of expenses they typically incur, and their material expectations. For a university professor, 700,000 drams is a tangible amount of money; for someone living the lifestyle of a pro-government oligarch, it is a disaster—sheer poverty. But since the professor, apparently, was not properly educated and failed to learn the “golden rule” of getting rich, let him remain poor—it’s his own fault.
According to some publications, Armenia allocates around 65 million US dollars annually from the state budget to the Prime Minister’s Office. So far, no one has denied this information. Again, there is no clear answer as to whether this is little or a lot. For instance, according to unofficial data, about 86 million pounds are spent on the British royal family. Our own “royal family,” therefore, is considerably more modest—and, as far as we know, does not have a secret “Buckingham Palace.” What exactly these 65 million are spent on remains unknown.
According to another report, around 3 billion drams (more than 7.8 million dollars) have been paid out from the state budget’s incentive fund as an annual bonus—a so-called 13th salary. If this is true, then I am sure that, on the eve of elections, it is especially important to “motivate” the red-beret forces—to crack protesters’ heads if necessary—as well as certain units of the National Security Service, so that they more actively carry out the “renovation of the church.”
As you can see, these expenditures are extremely important and, as far as I understand, extremely secret. Raising pensions by 10,000 drams, on the other hand, is not considered particularly important (on an annual basis, this would require around 60 billion drams, or 157.7 million dollars). Why doesn’t the government consider this a priority? Because pensioners are not educated people—they would foolishly spend that extra 10,000 on gas or electricity and still remain stuck with their problems.
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Aram ABRAHAMYAN
