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What was allowed in case of Serzh Sargsyan, is a secret in case of Alen Simonyan?
SOCIETY
21.12.2021 | 20:22
People — the highest power of Armenia, according to Nikol Pashinyan — do not have information about how much money was spent from the state budget for the renovation of the government mansion. National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan’s spokesman old Factor.am that Simonyan and his family will move in the mansion soon, adding that the house is under renovattion.
Factor.am sent a request to the organization in charge of servicing government officials’ residences to provide the following information: what company is renovating the house serving the NA Speaker, how that company was selected, how much money was spent on the renovation, but was refused information on the basis of Article 15, Clause 2 of the Law on Procurement, according to which expenses of the Armenian president, the prime minister and the National Assembly speaker are considered state secrets. The amendment to the Law on Procurement was made by the previous government in December 2016, and the amendments came into force two months later, in February 2017. However, it is noteworthy that in September 2018, shortly after the revolution, in response to a written inquiry by Factor.am, the Prime Minister’s Office provided information on the maintenance costs of the house used by Serzh Sargsyan during his presidency. In other words, Pashinyan’s staff did not consider the information on the expenses for the renovation of Serzh Sargsyan’s house a state secret in 2018, but in the case of Alen Simonyan it was considered a state secret, or in both cases there is the same legislative regulation.
The work style of the authorities can have two explanations: Either in 2018 they were unaware that the requested information contained state secrets, or they applied the restrictions of the law according to political expediency.
Ten days after becoming Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan presented the government mansion live and showed the people the conditions in which he lives. Let’s hope that Alen Simonyan will do the same.
