“DRAFT OF GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND DEMOCRACY”: DISCUSSION AT YSU

The members of “My step” parliamentary faction Artak manukyan and Vahagn Hovakimyan, the member of “Prosperous Armenia” faction Gevorg Petrosyan, the leader of “Bright Armenia” faction Edmon Marukyan and expert Harutyun Mesropyan.

The discussion was chaired by the program coordinator of “Union of Aware Citizens” NGO Daniel Ioannisyan.

At the beginning of the meeting Daniel Ioannisyan, expressing gratitude to YSU for supporting the discussion noted that the aim of the meeting is to bring to public discussion the issues related to the government structure before starting parliamentary discussions.

The representative of “My step” faction Vahagn Hovakimyan presented the program of the new structure of the government stressing that the main purpose of making changes in the structure is to make its work more efficient.

Accordingly, the ministries of Education and Science, Sport and Youth Affairs and Culture are to be united into the Ministry of Education and Science, Culture and Sport.



Referring to the Ministry of Diaspora the speaker noted that with the new project of the issues related to the Diaspora will be under the powers of the Prime Minister’s staff creating the position of the Chief Commissioner for the Diaspora Affairs.

The head of “Bright Armenia” faction Edmon Marukyan noted that any change made in the government structure must be clearly justified and logical.

According to Mr. Marukyan, the number of ministries in the new government structure is 14. By another proposal, National Security Service should be brought back into the government structure without the investigation body.

The Parliament must carry out the supervisory function.

The member of “Prosperous Armenia” faction Gevorg Petrosyan stressed that the problem is in effective work of the ministries and not in their number.

According to him the government structure needs improvement but not changes.

Expert Harutyun Mesropyan noted that the ministry whatever it is called must be functional.

An active discussion in the form of Q&A was held at the end.