The "Principled" Minister: Why Did He Not Refuse Support from "Grand Holding"?

According to the "Chroniclers" newspaper, on April 2, 2019, during a Facebook press conference of Radio Liberty, Armenian Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan addressed the proposal of Anna Hakobyan, head of the "City of Smiles" foundation, regarding financing social and healthcare programs by tobacco companies, stating that he considers it unacceptable.

"Any organization that solves healthcare issues, whether public or private, should not cooperate with any tobacco company, either financially or non-financially," he noted.

Against this background, it is interesting to note that on March 26 of this year, "Grand Holding" company transferred 100 million AMD to the treasury account to support measures aimed at preventing and overcoming the coronavirus, with the goal of preventing the spread of the virus and supporting healthcare workers.

It is also known that "Grand Holding" includes "Grand Tobacco", a company engaged in the production and sale of tobacco.

On June 24, "Chroniclers" submitted a written inquiry to the Ministry of Health, seeking to understand how Minister Torosyan agreed to receive support from a tobacco company in this case and whether this situation was deemed permissible.

Yesterday, on June 29, the ministry clarified that the collected funds are redistributed to the Ministry of Health based on government decisions.

This implies that Minister Torosyan attempted to shift responsibility from himself, suggesting that receiving assistance from tobacco companies when necessary is not only permissible but also encouraged. Agree, this is a "principled" perspective.

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