Thursday, 26 September 2019
Government funds the rise in salaries of rescuers and forest rangers
A Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.
On the agenda issues, the Executive discussed and approved the concept note on introducing a decentralized Regulatory Impact Assessment System (RIA) and the Conceptual Action Plan. The objective is to use the RIA methodology as a tool for developing high quality legal acts. The conduct of a comprehensive RIA implies problem identification, fact-finding and substantiation, identification of cause-effect relationships, goal setting, as well as options for eliminating or minimizing the cause-effect relationships, qualitative and quantitative assessment of impacts and selection of the preferred combination.
The implementation of the system is expected to increase the quality of decision-making, as conditions will be created for effective, quality and transparent decision-making and evidence-based analysis in the country, as well as for increased accountability of decision-makers.
Conducting a RIA analysis will allow to understand in advance the impact of these decisions in the medium and long term on the overall economy and its individual directions, ensuring stakeholder involvement in decision making.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan noted that the implementation of the above-mentioned mechanisms is one of the main policies of the government. “I think that the proposed regulations, the decisions taken by the government, and the laws approved by the National Assembly imply a large package that may have a significant impact on the economic sectors, and should be substantially assessed. And we all need to be well-advised before taking a decision and know the cost of those decisions in economic, financial terms, and what the eventual impact on the environment will be. I think we are introducing a very important institution,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The government has approved a decision to donate property. The decision envisages acceptance of Golden Apricot Hotel Limited Liability Company-owned (as of 19.04.2019 and 11.06.2019 respectively) and AMD 7 535 889 000-worth (estimated market value) 19 758 sq.m. buildings and 1.38 hectares of land, located at Tandzaghbyur Street 34/1, Tsakhkadzor town, Kotayk Marz of Armenia, as well as the relevant movable assets inside the buildings as a donation to the Republic of Armenia.
In accordance with the next decision, the Government will allocate 43,992.0 thousand drams to increase the nominal salaries of 99 forest rangers and senior forest chiefs and 512 forest guards employed in 19 forest enterprises of “Hayantar” SNCO by the Ministry of Environment. The money will be earmarked from the government’s reserve fund. Salaries will increase by more than 20 percent (20,000 drams) from this October 1. Currently forest managers’ average salary is 90, while forest rangers’ wages stand at 75 thousand drams.
