The Wife of a Deputy Appointed as Acting Director of the College: She Was a Member of the 'Eratio' Detachment

The wife of National Assembly deputy Armen Khachaturyan, Mariam Minasyan, has been appointed as the Acting Director of the Yerevan State Humanitarian College. This was reported by ArmDaily.am.

It has also come to light that Minasyan does not hold the appropriate certification. Moreover, this is the first time in years that an acting director has been appointed from outside, as this position is typically entrusted to someone from the staff until new elections are held. Mariam Minasyan was a member of Anna Hakobyan's 'Eratio' detachment.

The college announced that a director change has occurred, and this change is related to the previous director's retirement. When asked whether Mrs. Minasyan has the necessary certification, the college responded that they could not comment on that question. Regarding whether Mrs. Minasyan has been appointed as a temporary officer rather than a director and whether a competition for the director's position has been held, the media was told that they would not respond to any more questions and that only Mrs. Minasyan is authorized to answer any inquiries. However, Minasyan was not made available for comment, citing that she was busy.

According to the head of the Personnel Management Department of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Rouzanna Grigoryan, the previous director, Sergey Sargsyan, was dismissed under point B of part 3 of Article 16 of the Law on State Non-Commercial Organizations due to age. This served as the basis for the termination of his contract.

Sargsyan's birthday was on August 3; his powers as director were terminated as of August 4. Following this, Mariam Minasyan was appointed as the acting director until the election and appointment of a new director in accordance with Armenian legislation. It is a legal requirement to appoint an acting director in the absence of the director until a competition is announced. Since Minasyan meets the requirements for the director's position, the minister decided to appoint her as the acting director. A competition will be held, and the minister will sign a contract with whoever wins the competition for a term of five years.

When asked what the requirements were and how it happened that no staff member from the college was appointed as acting director, she replied that it is not mandatory for the acting director to be someone from the college's staff. "The minister could have assigned duties to one of the deputies, but he chose to appoint Mariam Minasyan. Regarding the requirements, she must have higher education, relevant experience, and hold a certification. Therefore, she meets all the requirements," she stated.

When asked whether Minasyan submitted a certification, Grigoryan confirmed that Minasyan had indeed submitted the required documents along with the certification. Notably, Mariam Minasyan, as the wife of a deputy, declared an income of 1,740,000 AMD as salary or equivalent payment in her 2020 declaration, but it was not specified which organization made the payment. In her 2019 declaration, Minasyan also reported the same income amount, but that year it was stated that the paying organization was the Yerevan State Sports College of Olympic Reserve.