Mirzoyan's Delegation Visit to the U.S. Will Cost Over $60,000 to the Budget

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports: "Three key officials from the Armenian government are currently in Washington, Ararat Mirzoyan, Tigran Avinyan, and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. A nine-member parliamentary delegation is set to stay in the U.S. for 10-12 days. How much will this cost the much-troubled Armenian budget? we asked the Parliament.

One person from each parliamentary faction has traveled: Arman Abovyan, Edmon Marukyan, and from "My Step" two—Lilit Makunts and Anna Karapetyan, former assistant of Ararat Mirzoyan and vice-chair of the legal and public affairs committee. The other four are support staff: Vahan Kostanyan, head of the Foreign Relations Department, a protocol representative, and an operator.

"The total travel expenses amount to 17,255,165 AMD, the daily allowance is 4,399,000 AMD, but we still do not have an overall estimate for the night stay," they said from the Parliament. Notably, according to the criteria adopted by the government, the daily allowance for overnight stays in Washington is set at $218, meaning the total accommodation cost will be around 10 million AMD. If we take the same criteria into account, the daily allowance set for Washington at $145 does not correspond to the 'reality.'

Even with the figures they provided, when adding accommodation, Ararat Mirzoyan's visit will cost the budget over $60,000. By the way, our sources report that, at least at this moment, there is no very high-level meeting scheduled for Ararat Mirzoyan. Just yesterday it was reported that he was received at the Armenian Embassy and met with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi."

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