Larger Cuts in the Ministry of Defense: On What Account? - Sofia Hovhannisyan

Former member of the 'My Step' faction and currently an independent MP Sofia Hovhannisyan informs on her Facebook page: "The budget of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports is set to be reduced by 17 billion AMD this year. It is interesting to consider, on what account? Science, public education, culture, sports, or... The budget was approved in December, when the country was already in crisis and it was possible to foresee what risks could arise... After the approval, it was decided to cut the most sensitive sectors, which already receive almost no investment, and will suffer...

The Ministry of Defense's cuts are even larger, and are these cuts coming from the salaries of officer ranks, or from inspections and other issues... There is a need for efficient spending, not just cuts. For instance, one DNA machine was recently bought for 250 million AMD, but it could have been acquired at market value for 105 million AMD, or at least do we understand if there is a necessity, since an additional DNA sequencer is sitting idle at the former SPEED center. It's hard to understand how this is happening..."