Godfather, Childhood Friend: Arbitrary Appointments at the State Revenue Committee

According to the "168 Hours" newspaper, recently, the chairman of the State Revenue Committee, Davit Ananyan, announced that as a result of structural changes, 128 employees have been dismissed. He stated that such a change was intended to optimize the staff and the work being carried out.

However, according to 168.am sources, the head of the SRC did not mention how many new positions had been opened, or by how much other departments had been expanded, or what arbitrary new appointments had been made. For example, the number of employees in the SRC's Inspections Department (whose head is Davit Ananyan's childhood friend, Telman Asatryan, and the deputy, Armen Petrosyan, is his godfather) has nearly doubled—from more than 60 to more than 120 employees.

Interestingly, on one hand, the SRC is making people write resignation applications, while on the other hand, it is announcing competitions for vacant positions, where obviously, random candidates are not accepted. If new positions are indeed being opened, perhaps instead of dismissing those individuals, they could have been offered those job openings? Moreover, there are also new advisory positions created in the SRC; the SRC head has appointed a certain number of people as advisors to ten department heads. By the way, according to our sources, some employees are preparing to file legal complaints.

Recall that at one time, D. Ananyan stated that the institution must first cleanse itself from within: "Those of our friends who have worked for more than 20 years and no longer have the ability to create new jobs and transfer their experience should be sent home with honors. Those who have 10 years of work experience and are capable of transferring that experience will be kept." However, specialists could not understand this peculiar statement of D. Ananyan, especially why the institution would get rid of experienced professionals while filling it with individuals lacking professional expertise.

Media outlets have addressed a similar appointment when a young girl, Shushan Nersisyan, who only had managerial experience in the private sector, was appointed as the deputy chairman of the SRC overseeing the customs sector, and immediately received a colonel's rank after her appointment. The SRC was perplexed that not only was an unprofessional person appointed to such an important and specialized position, but also that she rapidly received a rank when people earn their titles after working for decades. Furthermore, if the SRC head were to be consistent in his statements, then Telman Asatryan, mentioned above, should also resign from his position, along with many others in the SRC.

For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.