ArmInfo.Former vice-speaker of the Armenian parliament, now "ordinary" MP from the ruling Republican Party, Hermine Naghdalyan, in May 2017, at state budget expense "talked" by phone not for 2 million drams, as they wrote in the media, but "only" for 1.382.470. ArmInfo was informed about this in the Office of Public Relations of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
The parliament's office also explained that an account of 1.17 million AMD was formed as a result of connecting Naghdalyan's phone to the Internet while she was abroad for the last 4 days of May 2017. The rest of 212.470 were formed as a result of telephone conversations of Ms. Naghdalyan for the same month of May.
The NA apparatus also reported that the leadership of the parliament reached an agreement with Hermine Naghdalyan about the transfer of her office phone to her personal balance, which means that henceforth her telephone bills will be covered by Ms. Naghdalyan and not at the expense of the state. And who will pay Ms. Naghdalyan's phone bills that have accumulated over the past months, the leadership of the National Assembly does not explain.
After the arrival of Ara Babloyan, Chairman of the Parliament, according to his instructions, the National Assembly apparatus switched to the optimization of expenses. The personal apparatus of the leadership of the parliament was reduced, and there were reductions among employees of various departments. Also, by the order of the NA Speaker, limits were set for telephone conversations between the leadership of the parliament and the chairmen of the parliamentary commissions at the expense of the state. So, the limit on telephone conversations of the NA Speaker is envisaged within 40 thousand AMD, vice-speakers and heads of parliamentary commissions within 35 thousand AMD.