Thursday, 4 November 2010
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s opening remarks at government session
Dear colleagues,
Prior to getting down to today’s agenda, I wish to give some assignments.
Firstly, yesterday the President of Armenia formulated precise assignments concerning the State’s cross-border functions. We must accomplish these assignments as soon as possible. This concerns not only customs and tax administration, but also all those functions fulfilled as our citizens and managing subjects cross the border. I would like to begin with sanitary issues. It is not a secret that there is a lot of discontent in connection with them. Together with the Minister of Agriculture we recently took note of the report prepared by the Prime Minister’s control service. The Minister of Agriculture had asked me to enable checkups at those facilities with AMD 70mn turnover because worrisome signals used to come from our citizens concerning the sale of pesticides. The Ministry of Agriculture was given the needed authority. Subsequently we found out that only one infringement had been detected as a result of the checkups. When the control service of the Prime Minister went over these checkups once again, both the licensing and sanitary departments turned out to have failed in their duties. Such neglect of duties cannot be tolerated any longer considering that the sanitary department renders services on the border-points as well
The Minister of Agriculture has already dismissed the head of the licensing department. In view of the above, I am charging you, Mr. Minister, to do so with the head of the sanitary inspection. At the same time, on behalf of the President of the Republic, we should streamline and simplify the functions of sanitary services. I hereby direct Adviser to the Prime Minister Mr. Gharibyan and the Minister of Agriculture to come up with specific proposals concerning these functions within 10 days. There should remain only those functions which are necessary for the delivery of corresponding documents as stipulated by the law. All the other functions need to be removed.
Secondly, for two years now we have been talking about the affordability of credit resources in frontier areas. Moreover, we have endorsed a program allocating adequate funds so that interest rates are subsidized in border regions. This function has been carried out with serious shortfalls over the past two years.
The public TV has already addressed this issue in Hraparakum program where a lot of discontent was revealed among rural population. Either the finance ministry’s project implementation unit has failed in its duties. The matter will be discussed on TV. I charge you, Mr. Davtyan, within 10 day’s time to come up with a corresponding decision on realization of structural changes and personnel decisions. It is inadmissible for us to earmark financial assets which do not reach beneficiaries.
Thirdly, we have published an estimate of government activities, and this analytical material is posted on the website of the government.
We have been receiving alarming complaints from citizens concerning education and healthcare.. Corruption has gone deep in these spheres. This is likewise evidenced by the findings of our control services and those analytical materials already available to the public at large. We have held a consultative meeting in the Ministry of Education and Science.
Minister Ashotyan is hereby directed within 10 days to present a clear-cut program of remedial actions, inclusive of personnel changes. High school and university board staffing should be refreshed, with the new members to be charged to cope with the foregoing shortcomings.
We have also received complaints about corruption in the healthcare system. The Minister of Healthcare is hereby directed to come up with corresponding proposals concerning personnel changes, including the head of the ministry staff and those deputy ministers who have fulfilled the target functions.
We should be worried about the President’s orders as our efforts against these negative phenomena have proved inefficient. These are the first steps in this direction. If the situation fails to improve, we will resort to stricter measures.
