1000 drams bill will undergo amendments
The criticism of the society directed to the bill on 1000 drams has given some results. During the second reading the bill will be amended. “At this moment I cannot say which provisions have been amended, but some points have been changed, of course,” said the MoD spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan. The Ministry of Defense knows that the people aren’t against giving those 1000 drams, but they don’t trust in those, who should implement that idea. Also for that reason they will not participate in the fund’s management. “Among 9 people, who will manage the fund, representatives of the social sector are proposed, 3 people must be appointed by the Government, 2 people must be from the opposition and 3 people will be specialists from the CB. 5 out of 9 people must be more reliable.” Anahit Bakhshyan, member of Yerevan Council of Elders, is not among the supporters of the fund. Martik fund, which was founded in 2002, was also raising money with the mission to make the army stronger. But there are no results. “I have always posed a question how many officers have been trained abroad, how many people have been sent abroad for education, and I haven’t got any answers,” says Mrs Bakhshyan. Armenia’s Government, which has debts, may want the money collected for the servicemen. “They may spend it on something else under some new bill,” thinks Anahit Bakhshyan. “Collecting USD 1 million monthly from Armenia, you show your bankrupt state, your inability to pay, your undignified condition and leaving the sacred duty of the state to someone else,” notes the NA lawmaker Aram Manukyan. Annually USD 1.5 billion is illegally withdrawn from Armenia. Where is our NSS, which must stop it? Those amounts can be directed to the army. The opposition lawmaker knows where from to gather USD 1 million monthly. “In the hall, where the bill was discussed and put to vote, 60 people are officially millionaires, how are there 5 billionaires in the country?” MoD spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan sums up the discussion organized at “Hodvats 3” press club, by offering the society to choose their representatives and manage the fund.
