Thursday,
Armenian Referendum To Cost Over $7 Million
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan,
.
The Armenian government allocated on Thursday about 3.5 billion drams ($7.3
million) for the conduct of the upcoming referendum on its controversial
proposal to replace most members of the country’s Constitutional Court.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted that the funding does not constitute a
waste of scarce public resources and that it will actually benefit the Armenian
economy.
Armenians will vote on April 5 on draft constitutional amendments that would end
the powers of seven of the nine Constitutional Court judges who have for months
been under strong government pressure to resign. Pashinian has repeatedly
accused them -- and Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian in particular
-- of maintaining ties to the “corrupt former regime” and impeding judicial
reforms.
Pashinian’s political opponents and other critic say that he is simply seeking
to gain control over Armenia’s highest court. Some of them also point to what
they see as the exorbitant cost of the referendum.
Pashinian dismissed these arguments as his cabinet allocated the funding at a
weekly session in Yerevan.
“First of all, I want to say that this allocated sum will eventually flow into
the economy because after all economic transactions will be carried out with
this sum,” he said. “Secondly, money has to be spent on ensuring a free
expression of the people’s will. So any discussions and speculations are not
appropriate in this case.”
The Central Election Commission (CEC) will receive more than 2.5 billion drams
of the sum. According to Finance Minister Atom Janjughazian, the CEC will in
turn spend at least 2 billion drams on the wages of its members and more
low-ranking election officials that will organize the vote in polling stations
across Armenia.
By comparison, the government plans to spend 163 billion drams on education and
111 billion drams on healthcare this year. Its entire 2020 budget is projected
at 1.88 trillion drams (almost $4 billion).
Armenian Government Records 7.6 Percent GDP Growth In 2019
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Cars parked outside a shopping mall in Yerevan, January 9, 2020.
Economic growth in Armenia accelerated to 7.6 percent last year, according to
government data released on Thursday.
Official figures publicized by the Statistical Committee show that trade and
other services were the main drivers of this growth which increased the
country’s Gross Domestic Product to 6.55 trillion drams ($13.6 billion).
A 9 percent rise in industrial output reported by the government agency also
contributed to it. By contrast, the Armenian agricultural sector contracted by
more than 4 percent in 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian touted the GDP growth rate during a weekly
cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“It means that we have registered the fastest economic growth since 2008 and I
want to congratulate all of us in connection with that,” he told ministers. “I
am confident that as a result of our joint efforts we will register an even
higher figure in 2020.”
After years of sluggish growth that followed the 2008-2009 global financial
crisis, the Armenian economy expanded by 7.5 percent in real terms in 2017. Its
growth slowed to 5.2 percent in 2018, which saw a dramatic regime change in the
country, but gained renewed momentum in 2019, leading the International Monetary
Fund to revise upwards its growth forecast for Armenia.
“For this year we project growth to be at around 6.5-7 percent,” the IMF’s
resident representative in Yerevan, Yulia Ustyugova, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service in November.
Ustyugova cautioned that Armenian growth is largely driven by private
consumption, rather than rising investments or exports. “The challenge remains
how to generate sustainable, long-term growth that is driven by investment and
exports, rather than consumption,” she said.
For its part, the World Bank estimated Armenia’s 2019 growth at 6.9 percent in
its latest Global Economic Prospects report released in January. The bank said
the Armenian economy will grow by 5.1 percent this year and slightly faster in
2021 and 2022.
In early 2018, the World Bank upgraded Armenia’s status from a “lower middle
income” to an “upper middle income” nation. The official poverty rate in the
country fell from 29.4 percent in 2016 to 23.5 percent in 2018.
According to IMF projections, Armenia’s GDP per capita is on course to reach
$4,760 and exceed neighboring Azerbaijan’s and Georgia’s in 2020.
Government Reaffirms Plans For New Anti-Graft Body
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Deputy Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian, October 15, 2019.
The Armenian government is pressing ahead with its plans to set up a special
law-enforcement agency tasked with investigating corruption cases, a senior
official said on Thursday.
The creation of the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), slated for 2021, is part of
an anti-corruption strategy and a three-year action plan adopted by the
government last October.
The new body will inherit most of its law-enforcement powers from the existing
Special Investigative Service (SIS) which prosecutes state officials accused of
various crimes. The Armenian police and other law-enforcement agencies will also
cede some of their functions to the ACC.
“The Anti-Corruption Committee will investigate only new criminal cases after
its creation,” said Deputy Justice Minister Srbuhi Galian. “So there will be no
automatic transfers of [corruption] cases from other investigating bodies to the
Anti-Corruption Committee.”
The government strategy drawn up by the Justice Ministry sets a three-year
“transitional period” during which the other law-enforcement bodies will still
be able to deal with corruption-related offenses.
“We should not immediately overload the newly established structure with all
kinds of corruption cases and paralyze its work,” explained Galian.
The official also said that a government bill on the ACC will likely be
submitted to the Armenian parliament within a month. It may undergo some changes
as a result of ongoing public discussions, she added.
Such changes have already been proposed by non-governmental organizations. In
particular, the Armenian affiliate of Transparency International has called for
parliamentary oversight of the ACC’s activities.
“Under the government bill, the National Assembly will have no oversight
functions or levers,” said Hayk Martirosian, a member of the anti-graft
watchdog. “Of course, there is a problem with the constitution here. But our
proposal is that this issue should be addressed given the [government]
initiative to enact constitutional changes.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated
“systemic corruption” in Armenia since coming to power in May 2018.
Law-enforcement authorities have launched dozens of high-profile corruption
investigations during his rule.
Disclosure Of Armenian Minister’s Criminal Record Investigated
Armenia -- Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian at a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, .
Law-enforcement authorities have agreed to investigate what Minister for Local
Government Suren Papikian regards as an illegal revelation of his criminal
record.
The Yerevan daily “Hraparak” reported last week that Papikian was sentenced to 2
years and 3 months in prison in 2006 for stabbing his commander during
compulsory military service which he apparently performed at a Russian base in
Armenia. It said that he was released from prison a year later.
The paper critical of the Armenian government accused Papikian of hiding this
fact in his official biography.
While acknowledging the criminal conviction, Papikian condemned the “Hraparak”
article as an intrusion into his personal life. He implied that he believes the
information was leaked to the paper by former or current Armenian officials keen
to discredit him and the government.
The minister, who is one of the most important members of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s cabinet, urged law-enforcement authorities to find out who
publicized “the secret information relating to my private life.”
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) announced on Thursday that it has
launched criminal proceedings in connection with the newspaper report and
Papikian’s reaction to it.
An SIS statement said the inquiry is conducted under an article of the Criminal
Code which applies to cases where state officials illegally collect and spread
the kind of information about other individuals which is “considered a secret of
private life.”
“Hraparak” insisted, meanwhile, that the revelation of Papikian’s criminal
record was not an invasion of privacy and that it should not have been kept
confidential in the first place.
“We have no limitations in addressing the biography of a state official,” the
paper wrote on its website. “Especially given that that information is true and
not called into doubt. In any case, with our cameras switched on, we are
awaiting a visit by the investigators.”
Papikian, 33, is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party who actively
participated in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. He
taught history at a private high school in Yerevan prior to the revolution.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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