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NO CHAMBER OF CONTROL: PLUNDER OF STATE BUDGET GOES UNPUNISHED
http://armenianow.com/society/46993/armenia_state_budget_control_chamber
SOCIETY | 18.06.13 | 16:12
Photo: www.parliament.am
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
At the special parliament session on Monday the discussion of the
Control Chamber's report for 2012 continued, during which the country's
top figures talked about the "misused funds" from the state budget of
Armenia and suggested that criminal liability be applied to prevent
further pocketing of taxpayers' money by state officials.
The discussions started last week, when Control Chamber (CC) chairman
Ishkhan Zakaryan presented the CC report for 2012 to the Armenian
law-makers, reflecting serious misappropriation and misuse of money
in the spheres of construction and state procurement.
The Control Chamber, which by the power of the Constitution is
an independent state body, registers violations at various state
departments and ministries led by the representatives of the political
forces comprising the country leadership. Nonetheless, it did not
prevent many among the ruling Republicans, including the parliament
speaker, from expressing their astonishment at the fact that the
taxpayers' money has been misappropriated by officials. Meanwhile
seems many observers that the state budget is being "robbed" with
the permission of the highest circles of power, and the lower circles
get their share.
"In reality there are certain people 'engorging' the budget. How do
those officials respond when you tell them that they have pocketed
ten million, twenty million [drams] ($25,000, $50,000)? There are
no irreplaceable officials, we have to get rid of those involved in
plunder," said speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.
On September 16 of 2012, President Serzh Sargsyan, assessing the
four-year government plan, said in reference to "kickbacks", that
in order to eliminate those "the big fish have to be caught from
the head".
Deputy prime minister Armen Grigoryan, territorial administration
minister, said in his parliament speech that the government had
taken respective measures for all the CC reported cases, however,
by the law, they are not criminally liable, and only economic or
civil penalty is provided for; in other words the pocketed money is
returned to the state budget, the case is closed, end of story.
"Maybe criminal liability should become a constituent element in those
processes, which, we believe, is an issue of improving the acting
legislation regulating that field. The CC does not make full use of
its authority granted to it by the law in referring suspicious cases
to the Prosecutor General's office. We strongly believe that Point
4 of Article 6 of the law On Control Chamber is not used to its best
advantage either: CC should send cases with suspicious legal-criminal
violations registered during their monitoring and reporting to the
Prosecutor General's office," said the deputy prime minister.
Zakaryan stated that only one case has been sent to the Prosecutor
General's office and it was related to the violations discovered at
the justice ministry.
So far only one official - Vazgen Khachikyan, head of the social
welfare department at the ministry of labor and social affairs -
has been punished as a result of the CC monitoring. Khachikyan was
accused of abuse of power. Between 2006 and 2010, together with
a number of officials and people in charge of the same department,
Khachikyan embezzled 260.9 million drams' worth of retirement pensions
($636, 480).
http://armenianow.com/society/46993/armenia_state_budget_control_chamber
SOCIETY | 18.06.13 | 16:12
Photo: www.parliament.am
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
At the special parliament session on Monday the discussion of the
Control Chamber's report for 2012 continued, during which the country's
top figures talked about the "misused funds" from the state budget of
Armenia and suggested that criminal liability be applied to prevent
further pocketing of taxpayers' money by state officials.
The discussions started last week, when Control Chamber (CC) chairman
Ishkhan Zakaryan presented the CC report for 2012 to the Armenian
law-makers, reflecting serious misappropriation and misuse of money
in the spheres of construction and state procurement.
The Control Chamber, which by the power of the Constitution is
an independent state body, registers violations at various state
departments and ministries led by the representatives of the political
forces comprising the country leadership. Nonetheless, it did not
prevent many among the ruling Republicans, including the parliament
speaker, from expressing their astonishment at the fact that the
taxpayers' money has been misappropriated by officials. Meanwhile
seems many observers that the state budget is being "robbed" with
the permission of the highest circles of power, and the lower circles
get their share.
"In reality there are certain people 'engorging' the budget. How do
those officials respond when you tell them that they have pocketed
ten million, twenty million [drams] ($25,000, $50,000)? There are
no irreplaceable officials, we have to get rid of those involved in
plunder," said speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.
On September 16 of 2012, President Serzh Sargsyan, assessing the
four-year government plan, said in reference to "kickbacks", that
in order to eliminate those "the big fish have to be caught from
the head".
Deputy prime minister Armen Grigoryan, territorial administration
minister, said in his parliament speech that the government had
taken respective measures for all the CC reported cases, however,
by the law, they are not criminally liable, and only economic or
civil penalty is provided for; in other words the pocketed money is
returned to the state budget, the case is closed, end of story.
"Maybe criminal liability should become a constituent element in those
processes, which, we believe, is an issue of improving the acting
legislation regulating that field. The CC does not make full use of
its authority granted to it by the law in referring suspicious cases
to the Prosecutor General's office. We strongly believe that Point
4 of Article 6 of the law On Control Chamber is not used to its best
advantage either: CC should send cases with suspicious legal-criminal
violations registered during their monitoring and reporting to the
Prosecutor General's office," said the deputy prime minister.
Zakaryan stated that only one case has been sent to the Prosecutor
General's office and it was related to the violations discovered at
the justice ministry.
So far only one official - Vazgen Khachikyan, head of the social
welfare department at the ministry of labor and social affairs -
has been punished as a result of the CC monitoring. Khachikyan was
accused of abuse of power. Between 2006 and 2010, together with
a number of officials and people in charge of the same department,
Khachikyan embezzled 260.9 million drams' worth of retirement pensions
($636, 480).