The previous minister, Gnel Sanosian, was among six senior officials who were told by Pashinian to resign earlier this week. Sanosian was replaced by the 33-year-old Davit Khudatian, who has run the southern Armavir province since January.
During a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Khudatian admitted that a new kindergarten built in an Armavir village did not open its doors as planned in October despite his promise given during Pashinian’s visit to the region earlier this year. He blamed the delay on problems with gas supply to the facility.
A visibly annoyed Pashinian dismissed the explanation, complaining that Khudatian and other officials have repeatedly misled him about the completion of various infrastructure projects financed by the Armenian government.
“In front of cameras, I said when [the kindergarten] will be opened, and the people of the village saw that, right?” he said. “You said October and I wrote [on social media] that the kindergarten will be opened in October. Did it turn out that I lied? It did.”
“I now warn that from now on if a [promised] time frame is not met, there will be concrete personal responsibility … Nobody must give me any time frame, any data that has not been verified,” he warned.
Pashinian made similar complaints at the previous cabinet meeting held last week. In a veiled criticism of Sanosian, he said social media users have refuted his announcement that a highway leading from Armavir to Gyumri has been reconstructed.
Sanosian resigned four days later along with Interior Minister Vahe Ghazarian and the heads of Armenia’s tax and customs service, two law-enforcement agencies and a body overseeing courts. Opposition leaders and other critics dismissed the resignations as a publicity stunt aimed at boosting Pashinian’s declining approval ratings ahead of the next general elections.
Earlier on Thursday, Pashinian praised Sanosian’s handling of road construction and other infrastructure projects as he introduced Khudatian to senior officials from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures. He said Sanosian, who has faced media scrutiny lately over suspected corruption in the implementation of those projects, will now concentrate on “political and organizational work” within his Civil Contract party.