No Agency Has Been Instructed to Transfer Funds to the 'Armenia' All-Armenian Fund, Says Pashinyan

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan denied today in the National Assembly that any agency has been instructed to transfer funds to the 'Armenia' All-Armenian Fund. He made this statement in response to a question from LHK faction MP Mane Tandilyan.

During the Q&A session, Tandilyan inquired whether the police, the Cadastre Committee, or the Ministry of Emergency Situations had been directed to transfer funds from the budget to the fund's account. She asked, “On what basis are certain state institutions transferring budgetary resources to the fund? Is there a government decision, or is it a PR initiative from the head of the respective agency? This concerns the transfers from the police, the MES, and the Cadastre Committee; how are such decisions made?”

This question startled the government representatives, who requested a written inquiry to provide a detailed response. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Pashinyan felt it necessary to address the issue: “Yesterday, for example, the police chief told me that during the fundraising event, employees collected money and transferred it. This was new information for me, and I have not received such information from anyone else, nor has anyone been given such an instruction,” said Pashinyan.

Tandilyan expressed skepticism regarding the possibility that police officers could have personally donated 19 million 500 thousand drams to the fund. Pashinyan reaffirmed that no such instruction had been given on their part.