50 Employees Cut from the National Assembly Staff

The structural changes in the staff of the National Assembly have been completed, resulting in the reduction of positions from 654 to 600. This was stated by Tigran Galstyan, head of the National Assembly staff, on his Facebook page. Below is his full post:

"I am pleased to report that we have completed the structural changes in the staff of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, aimed at establishing an effective organizational structure free from bad practices and genuinely improved and reformed. The implemented structural reforms are characterized by the following features:

The new organizational structure of the National Assembly consists of 14 primary subdivisions (excluding the offices of committees and deputies), which is a decrease of 2 from the previous structure. The number of positions in the state service has increased by 8, but the total number of positions has reduced from 654 to 600.

Despite numerous misleading information in the media indicating a reduction in state service positions, we declare that we support the encouragement of highly specialized work within the state service. Instead of 10 junior positions included in the previous position list, we have included 26 in the new one. We encourage the staffing of our office with newly graduated young professionals.

Moreover, we have plans to establish a training center for the National Assembly of Armenia to ensure the effective preparation and retraining of our future personnel.

A unified expert and analytical department has been created within the structure, whose functions include supporting the entire process from idea generation concerning laws to their enactment, providing informational, analytical, and expert support, as well as monitoring the post-legislative results.

New professional functions have been defined for the newly created Public Relations and Telecommunications Department, which is intended to foster more open and transparent relationships between the public and the parliament.

The unit responsible for responding to citizens' correspondence and complaints has received enhanced functions.

A new culture of human resource management is being established. The revamped unit will implement new functions such as transparent and modern recruitment methods for candidates, adaptation processes for new employees, planned activities for ongoing training and quality improvement, and the development of motivation systems, among numerous other updated functions.

In the revamped Financial Management and Accounting Department, the Budget Management and Procurement divisions have been merged. In the previous structure, these were small units of 2-3 people, which was inefficient from a management norm perspective. As a result of the merger, we have a complete unified cycle from budget planning for expenses to the final procurement process, as well as 8 positions in one unit that fully meets management norm criteria.

The Internal Audit unit has been strengthened in terms of function and personnel. We are confident that without adequate internal control, quality governance cannot be ensured (this is also a requirement of ISO 9001 standards).

The salaries of the least paid employees in the staff (10% for operators, 7% for drivers) have been increased. We advocate for social justice.

A "Mobilization Preparation, Mobilization Programs, and Civil Defense Division" has been created. A parliament in a warring country must fully function even in special circumstances. Incidentally, civil defense functions have also been expanded. In the previous structure, these functions were limited to one assistant to the head of staff.

The job passports of employees in modified units have been reviewed and supplemented with numerous new and efficiency-enhancing functions. We aim to encourage the involvement of specialists with new approaches, new knowledge, and skills in applying modern technological tools to the staff.

The next step following the structural changes will be the implementation of a new management model, such as process management (through process reengineering). This should contribute to qualitative new achievements within the staff.

P.S. We are principled about having the best staff."