Ani Grigoryan
On December 2, the Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan gave an interview to “Arajin” news agency (1in.am), talking about the road construction company headed by his brother, victories in state procurement, as well as the expediency of acquiring an expensive car for the NA Speaker. How much have official cars been reduced? Referring to the criticism of the decision to buy a new car for about $ 180,000, Simonyan said that “it was a necessity, it was acquired to avoid higher costs.”
“When they cite the example of the Prime Minister, they say it is not a patriarchy. “After the revolution, the cars of the state system have been reduced by more than 40 percent,” Simonyan stated, claiming that the National Assembly had done the same. Thus, each year in the state budget, the information on the number of official cars of all state authorities (except the NSS, police, Ministry of Defense) is presented in a separate table. According to these data, the number of official cars in 2017 was 915, in 2018 – 902. In 2019, the initial index was 834, which was reduced by 68 cars compared to 2018, but the data was adjusted, and the list included the number of cars whose maintenance costs until 2019. including at the expense of extra-budgetary funds. And in 2019, the number of official cars became 1,082. In 2020, the number of official cars was reduced by 158 to 924. And in 2021 the number of official cars is 923. The draft state budget for 2022 does not yet contain information on the number of cars. In fact, Simonyan’s assertion that official cars have been reduced by more than 40% does not correspond to reality.
If we take the adjusted data of 2019 – 1,092, the index of 2021 – 923, then the number of official cars has been reduced by only 15%. As for the number of official cars of the National Assembly, if in 2018 their number was 81, then in 2021, according to the budget, it is 66. In fact, it has been reduced by 15, by 19%. The armored car Simonyan also announced that he refused to buy a more expensive armored car, reminding that in 2020. About the incident that took place on the night of November 9, when a group of people attacked and severely beat the then NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan. “We had a case when my friend, the Speaker of the National Assembly, was assassinated a year ago. If he had been in an armored car, nothing would have happened to him,” said Simonyan. However, Simonyan’s assertion that Mirzoyan would have been harmed if he had been transported in an armored car is at least puzzling and manipulative, as he posted in the video that the driver of the car had opened the driver’s door from inside, after which the new protesters managed to lower Mirzoyan from the official car. then to be severely beaten. In this case, it did not matter whether the car was armored or not, as the car had not been shot at. Զ Mirzoyan was not attacked in the car.
About brother-run businesses, Simonyan also referred to the victories in state procurement of the company led by his brother. “There are investigative journalists, they win grants, they give interviews, it’s enough just to record that my brother works somewhere and as an ordinary employee, they’re content with the fact that they go to my 86-year-old grandmother’s door in the picture” “They say that there is no one at home,” said Simonyan, adding that winning or not winning in public procurement tenders does not affect his brother’s salary or income. It should be reminded that Alen Simonyan’s brother, Karlen Simonyan, according to the electronic register of legal entities, is a director in “Euroasphalt” and “Euroasphalt 1” companies, a deputy director in “TS Construction” company.