On October 4, the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted the draft decision on applying to the Constitutional Court on Suspending the authorities of the President of the Constitutional Court (CC) Hrayr Tovmasyan. The voting of the deputies was held in a closed and secret way. 98 MPs voted for and 1 MP against. Two out of the existing vote papers were recognized invalid. As announced earlier, the Prosperous Armenia did not participate in the voting.

Yerevan Hosting Supreme Eurasian Economic Council Meeting

On October 1, a regular session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council took place in Yerevan, within the framework of Armenia’s chairmanship of the EAEU. The session was attended by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, RF President Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz Republic President Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Eurasian Economic Commission Board Chairman Tigran Sargsyan.

During the narrow-format sitting, the EAEU-member states exchanged views on the proceedings of Eurasian Economic Forum’s panel discussions, discussed the arrangements for distribution of import duties among the member states’ budgets, and the Eurasian Economic Commission Board’s activities.

Later, the meeting continued in an expanded format with the participation of President of Moldova Igor Dodon as the head of an observer state, and guests of honor President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.

Approved Payment of debts in the Union budget by the EAEU-Member States, the amount of duty paid by economic operators when applying to the EAEU.

Signed Amendments to the EAEU agro-industrial policy regulations, the Eurasian Supreme Economic Council’s relevant decision of May 29, 2014, the arrangement signed on May 29, 2014, etc.

According to the decision of the EAEU leaders, the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will be held in St. Petersburg in December.

Former Finance Minister to remain in custody

On September 30, after the court session, former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan’s lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, told reporters that the Court of Appeal rejected the motion by the defendants to change his preventive measure. Thus, Khachatryan will remain in custody.

The latter was detained at the end of August by a motion filed by the NSS. Khachatryan is accused of abuse of power and making particularly large-scale waste. Damage of 800 mln drams (about US$1.7 mln ) to the state has been restored by criminal case.

According to Yerem Sargsyan, Gagik Khachatryan paid the damage allegedly caused to the state. The talk is about 200 mln drams (about US$ 420.000 ).

Government approved RA draft state budget for 2020

On September 30, the extraordinary Cabinet meeting approved the legislative initiative of RA Government on the draft law of the Republic of Armenia on the State Budget for 2020.

The 2020 State budget revenue side amounts to 1.7 trillion drams (more than US$ 3 billion), with the expenditures standing at 1.9 trillion drams (about US$ 4 billion).

According to the Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan, the proposed macroeconomic framework is based on the estimates which in their turn are based on the developments of the world and on the descriptive situation of our economy.

Yerevan Municipality terminates contract with Sanitek

On October 3, Hayk Marutyan, the city mayor reported that Yerevan municipality has unilaterally terminated its contract with waste management company Sanitek.

According to the mayor, the company started to fail from 2017 and these defects grew even worse in the middle of 2018. “Taking into consideration corresponding contractual provisions and following the law “On local self-governance in Yerevan City” I thereby unilaterally terminate the contracts signed with Sanitek companies,” Hayk Marutyan noted.

The day before the mayor’s announcement, on October 2, Yerevan Mayor spokesperson Hakob Karapetyan posted on his facebook page that Yerevan Municipality transferred 160 mln drams (more than US$ 334.000) to Sanitek for the services provided in the second half of August 2019. He also noted that Yerevan Municipality urged the leadership of the company to use the amount to meet their obligation for payment of the salaries to their employees.

Distance Learning Program in Regions

In the next school year, a pilot program of distance learning will launch in Armenian schools. It is planned to be implemented in the regions of Ararat and Gegharkunik. The representative of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia told Armenpress about it.

The reason for the initiative was lack of teachers at schools. The pilot program will allow to raise problems of the distance learning program so that in case of their solution the program is fully operational in the future. Program managers believe that alongside with providing distance learning, this will also solve the problem of computer saturation at schools.

Translated by Mary Grigoryan

Ampop Media

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First Published: 10/10/2019