ARMENIA: YEREVAN MAYOR HAS FLAMINGO FIXATION
EurasiaNet.org
Nov 7 2013
November 7, 2013 – 2:38pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
The mayor of Toronto, Canada’s largest city, made headlines recently
by admitting to smoking crack cocaine. Taron Margarian, the mayor of
Armenia’s capital Yerevan, is generating controversy in a different
way – by proffering a vision of glowing flamingoes for his city.
Like any aging city, Yerevan, wants to look its best. But many denizens
contend the mayor’s office is wasting public funds by emphasizing
gaudy style over substance. Margarian is going about fulfilling a
pledge to build a “better Yerevan” by procuring flags, benches and
decorative flamingoes, rather than refurbishing the city’s essential
infrastructure, including the crumbling sewage system.
For a city government that earlier this year announced a budget
deficit of roughly 400 million drams ($985,780) the beautification
choices are raising hackles. Helping to compound criticism is the
fact that the cosmetic touch-ups are being paid for out of the
city’s opaque development budget. Thus, contracts are being handed
out without tenders.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the beautification plan is
a proposal to populate the city center with illuminated figures of
antelopes, butterflies and orange flamingoes, situated on artificial
grass. The mayor’s office intends to take the menagerie to other
sections of the city, too. No information is publicly available about
the total cost.
Already, 170 million drams (around $419,453) have been spent on the
repair and decoration of up to 130 building archways with scenes of
Yerevan, depicting nature and Armenian fairy tales. Many archways,
however, were decorated before being repaired. And some residents
criticize the murals as unprofessional. No tender was announced for
the project.
Those in shock from such murals or the flamingoes now can rest on
benches bearing the city’s name – in case anyone forgot it – which
have been placed throughout downtown Yerevan. The city shelled out 99
million drams (around $244,000) — also without issuing a tender —
to purchase 600 of these benches from the local Nikol Duman Foundry.
According to figures released by the mayor’s office, each bench
cost 165,000 drams (about $407) – a price nearly 40 percent higher
than that for similar, non-inscribed benches available online from
Armenian vendors.
And then there are flags – 72 mid-sized banners, purchased, again
without a tender, for 263,900 drams ($650) each.
Another source of outrage is the two-fold increase in the amount
shelled out recently to commemorate Yerevan’s 2,795th anniversary
(200-million drams or nearly $500,000). No justification was provided
for this year’s higher-priced municipal birthday party.
“I feel as if I’ve been fooled by the celebration of my city. Are
they kidding us? There are so many problems in our city and they are
spending millions on this?” asked 36-year-old Nane Avagian.
Opposition activist Hranush Kharatian, a former senior government
official, said precious public funds are desperately needed to maintain
infrastructure. “Multi-story buildings are falling apart; elevators are
shattered, there are leaking roofs, sewage water flows into buildings,
while damaged buildings pose a daily threat to residents,” he said.
Despite the glaring needs, the city doesn’t “have any programs aimed at
solving these problems, while the projects that are being implemented
are designed for something else,” Kharatian added.
Margarian is a member of the governing Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA). His office did not respond to repeated requests by
EurasiaNet.org for an interview. However, city spokesperson Artur
Gevorgian dismissed critics of the beautification projects as “creeps”
and “stinkers” in comments published by the news website news.am.
If anything “stinks” about the projects, it is city officials’ civic
planning skills, critics counter, however. “As long as they do not
reveal the names of the real owners of the business entities that
benefit from these purchases [for the anniversary celebrations],
or that make these purchases [for them], and as long as they do not
explain the grounds for the purchase prices, there will not be any
justification [for the expenditures] that would exclude the risk
of corruption,” charged Artur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor office
of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, a human-rights non-governmental
organization.
Like many others, activist Kharatian believes that the mayor’s office
“spends money not on certain projects, but on spheres where certain
people have their own interests.”
In July, such beliefs led to a boycott of public transportation in
Yerevan after the mayor announced a minimum 50-percent fare hike. Many
claimed that the increase was going to line the pockets of political
cronies who allegedly own transportation companies. Amid determined
push-back from the general public, the mayor decided to revoke the
price-increase.
RPA Deputy Chair Galust Sahakian denies that city officials are lining
the pockets of their pals. He even suggested the city needed to spend
more on updating its appearance. “We have to think about tourism and
the reception of guests,” he said.
Sakunts said that obtaining useful information on public expenditures
will be possible only if critics mobilize. “If the city council and its
so-called [23] opposition members do not fulfill their commitments,
the situation will not change. There is a lack of initiative and
political responsibility,” he said.
To outside observers, the ballot box might seem one way to hold city
officials accountable. City council elections will not be held until
2017, however, and expectations for a change from the RPA in Yerevan
run slim.
Editor’s note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in
Yerevan and editor of MediaLab.am.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67737