KOCHARIAN ALLY SET TO HEAD ARMENIAN OVERSIGHT BODY
By Ruzanna Khachatrian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 31 2007
President Robert Kocharian will ask parliament to elect a leading
member of the pro-presidential Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) as the
new head of a state body tasked with overseeing use of public funds,
it emerged on Wednesday.
The Audit Chamber has until now operated under the tutelage of
Armenia’s National Assembly and been greatly influenced by its
speakers. One of the amendments to the Armenian constitution enacted
in November 2005 declared it fully independent of the legislature.
The latter can now approve or reject only chamber heads nominated by
the president of the republic.
Deputy parliament speaker Ishkhan Zakarian, who is affiliated with the
BHK, has for months been tipped to take over the body. Zakarian met
with President Robert Kocharian on Wednesday and told RFE/RL afterwards
that the head of state will nominate him for the post. He said the
decision will be formally conveyed to the parliament leadership later
in the day.
Zakarian is a figure close to Kocharian and Gagik Tsarukian,
a millionaire businessman and the founding leader of the BHK. The
party is represented in the government by three ministers. It also
controls one of the two posts of deputy parliament speaker.
The Audit Chamber has repeated criticized in the past the government’s
use of public finances and external loans but lacked the legal
and administrative muscle to affect government policies. It was
particularly active from 2003-2005 when the Armenian parliament was
headed by Artur Baghdasarian, the leader of the now opposition Orinats
Yerkir Party.
In particular, the chamber harshly criticized the government’s
privatization policies, implying that they were tainted with
corruption. It also accused the Justice Ministry of misusing a 1999
World Bank loan designed to strengthen the Armenian judiciary. The
government denied those allegations.