72 Million Dollars in Bonuses During 2020

In the tumultuous year of 2020, marked by war, illness, and disaster, over 37 billion drams (approximately 72 million USD) in bonuses were distributed within the Armenian public administration system. A social media page has presented these figures.

In the police department, bonuses amounted to 9.4 billion drams, while the National Security Service received 3 billion drams. The State Revenue Committee was awarded 6.5 billion drams in bonuses.

Following these, other entities received the following amounts:

• Judicial Department of Armenia – 2.14 billion drams
• Ministry of Emergency Situations – 2.11 billion drams
• Office of the Prime Minister – 1.6 billion drams
• Civil Aviation Committee, notorious for a series of failures and scandals (including hijacked aircraft and revocation of national carriers' licenses), received just 60 million drams in bonuses.

Notably, the 'troll factory' of Prime Minister Pashinyan received 80.5 million in bonuses.

Against this backdrop, it is important to remember that almost daily, images emerge from the border areas showing the poor conditions under which our servicemen conduct their duties. It's also significant that the Ministry of Defense's budget did not increase even after the war.