One Employee of the Ministry of Health Received 3 Million Drams More in Bonuses

The newspaper "Hayastani Zhoghovurd" reports that the Republic of Armenia's Audit Chamber has conducted checks within the Ministry of Health. The activities of the ministry from January 1 to December 31, 2020, when Arsen Torosyan was the minister, have been examined.

It has become clear that an internal audit of the ministry's operations was not conducted. Reimbursements for travel expenses were made after employees returned from their trips, and were late as per the defined procedure. Travel certificates were filled out with errors and corrections.

For instance, Deputy Minister Artur Smbatyan, who recently received a high award, was on a trip to Kapan, Kajaran, Meghri, and Sisian in the Syunik province from February 7 to 9, 2020, although the minister's order was issued on February 10, 2020.

Moreover, it has come to our attention that five employees were paid a total of 14 million 68 thousand drams more than allowed. Notably, during the review of the cases of 22 employees, none were found to have been assigned a special task that would serve as a basis for bonuses, and several employees' awards exceeded the established limits.

For example, one senior official from the ministry received 7 million 349 thousand 800 drams between March and June instead of the designated 4 million 250 thousand drams.

However, the Audit Chamber did not accept the ministry's explanations and noted that the requirements of Article 169, Part 2 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Armenia had been violated. Instead of utilizing vacation days from 2019-2020, vacation days from 2021 were allocated, and a one-time benefit payment was made.

For more details, refer to today's issue of the newspaper.