Opposition lawmakers condemned on Monday Armenian provincial governors for paying themselves and their staffers lavish yearend bonuses.
The governors of at least three provinces -- Ararat, Armavir and Syunik -- reportedly received financial rewards equivalent to their monthly salaries. They all have been in office for less than a year.
According to the Hetq.am investigative publication, Ararat’s Garik Sargsian paid himself an extra 690,000 drams ($1,420) late last month. He earns 660,000 drams per month.
A member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, Sargsian was the mayor of a village in Ararat before being appointed as regional governor in June. He famously claimed to have sold a car belonging to the village administration to save local funds and used a bicycle to ride to work.
Representatives of the two opposition parties represented in the Armenian parliament denounced the bonuses as unethical and profligate.
“This is unacceptable to us,” said Ani Samsonian of the Bright Armenia Party. “I think that after this outcry the governors should reconsider their approaches because paying such lavish bonuses from the state budget … is inadmissible.”
Sergey Bagratian, a Prosperous Armenia Party deputy who had served as a governor, said while the bonuses are not illegal it is morally wrong for the governors to reward themselves.
“Only the lowest echelons [of provincial administrations,] whose salaries are low, should get bonuses,” Bagratian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “I never rewarded myself.”
Lena Nazarian, a deputy parliament speaker representing Pashinian’s My Step alliance, also disapproved of the governors’ decisions. She said that they should have been “more modest in paying themselves bonuses.”
But Lilit Makunts, the leader of My Step’s parliamentary faction, was less categorical. “If the law allows that, does not forbid that, I can’t speak out against it,” she told reporters.
Still, Makunts said the parliament majority should discuss the issue and consider legally restricting the governors’ ability to get extra pay at will.
Minister for Local Government Suren Papikian, who supervises the provincial administrations, also defended the governors when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service later on Monday. He said that the bonuses are one way to partly offset a big pay gap between public and private sector employees.
“Once a year a governor can be rewarded with a relevant government body’s permission,” he said.
Papikian at the same time criticized Sargsian, the Ararat governor, for getting a bonus exceeding his monthly salary. “I had a phone conversation in connection with that and I think that the relevant government body will take steps or at least give explanations,” added the minister.