Changes Proposed in the Requirements for Appointing Heads of Public Non-Commercial Organizations

The government has submitted a draft law to the National Assembly, proposing changes to the requirements for appointing heads of public non-commercial organizations (PNCOs). The opposition is expressing opposition to the draft, pointing out potential issues that may arise.

The draft law on amendments to the law on public non-commercial organizations was presented at a National Assembly meeting by Gayane Gabrielyan, Deputy Minister of Environment of the Republic of Armenia. The existing law stipulates that an eligible, adult citizen of Armenia can be appointed to the executive body only if they have higher education and at least three years of relevant professional work experience, unless otherwise provided by law.

“The executive body of PNCO is considered a leadership position, and the requirement for at least three years of professional work experience in the relevant field limits the pool of candidates for the executive position. The proposed amendments in the draft will allow persons with public service or professional work experience to participate in the selection for the executive body, thus expanding the opportunities within the selection of more specialized individuals,” said the deputy minister.

Thus, the draft specifies that an eligible, adult citizen of Armenia with higher education, who has at least four years of public service experience, or at least five years of professional work experience, or at least three years of work experience in the relevant field, can be appointed to the executive body, unless otherwise stipulated by law.

Vahagn Hovakimyan from the ruling Civil Contract party noted that this is a technical change. However, Anna Mkrtchyan from the “Honor” faction expressed conviction that the draft does not propose a mere technical adjustment. According to her, the government is addressing a different issue with this draft.

Agvan Vardanyan from the “Armenia” faction also agreed with Mkrtchyan. “According to the existing law, a person must have professional work experience to be appointed as the director of a PNCO; now the government proposes to replace the professional work experience requirement with just relevant field work experience,” he said. He suggested monitoring the appointments of PNCO directors in the coming months to see their biographies and work experience. “And you will see that this indeed opens a loophole, allowing those who lack professional experience to be appointed as heads of PNCOs,” the deputy remarked.

However, the deputy minister insisted that the expressed concerns are unfounded, emphasizing that the requirement for at least three years of work experience in the relevant field, which existed before, has been maintained, and they have simply added a requirement for five years of professional work experience, effectively raising the threshold. “In other words, we have not simplified the process; we have complicated it while expanding options,” Gabrielyan stated.