VIDEO: You Should Have Excluded Nepotism, Yet We See the Complete Opposite: MP to Papikyan

You what assessment do you give to this principle of nepotism and favoritism? You are the government that should have excluded this, yet we see the complete opposite under your department.

This was the question posed today in the National Assembly by 'Enlightened Armenia' faction MP Armen Yeghiazaryan to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Suren Papikyan. The MP recalled that Hetq.am had published a report days ago indicating that the director of the Road Department, Stepan Machyanyan, is a friend of Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan and his former adviser David Manukyan. Furthermore, he is the brother-in-law of the sister of former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhy Batoyan.

“What assessment do you give to this nepotism principle? You are the government that should have excluded this, but we see the complete opposite under your department,” Yeghiazaryan stated.

Suren Papikyan responded, “You are also Edmon Marukyan's friend; what kind of disgrace is this? You are a member of the same faction, politics and trust are based on this; there is no principle of nepotism here. Competitions are held in accordance with competitive regulations. Who participated, who lost, who has been helped if wrongdoing has occurred, whom they complained to, where they complained; if you have the answers to these questions and it turns out that there is a process in my department where someone is given an advantage over another based on nepotism, then we will talk.”

Armen Yeghiazaryan reiterated that his relationship with Edmon Marukyan is irrelevant. “The issue here is that you control the budget in this process, and we, in this case, do not control the budget and have nothing to do with the state budget,” he said.

Suren Papikyan noted that in Armenia, there are many strong friendly and acquaintance ties. “But at the same time, I must emphasize that Stepan Machyanyan is a very good manager, he has proven himself both in the private sector and in the Ministry of Social Affairs, and we have invited him to work in the department seeing his work,” he added.

For more details, watch the video on tert.am.