ArmInfo. Bonus payments to employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations helped, but we raise the issue of salary increases. This was stated by the Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia Feliks Tsolakyan on April 19 at a meeting with journalists. As the minister pointed out, the Emergencies Ministry today is a fully established structure.
According to Tsolakyan, in 2019, the Armenian government went on an increase in the bonus fund, which allowed the Ministry of Emergency Situations to issue bonuses to employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations 4 times a year in the amount of wages. At the same time, at this stage, the ministry is preparing a draft decision of the government, which is aimed at increasing the salaries of ordinary employees of the Emergencies Ministry. "A lifeguard risks his life on a daily basis, both into fire and into water, but receives a meager fee for it," he said. Thus, the average salary of the rank and file in the MES is 115 thousand drams, while the officer's salary is 230 thousand drams. According to the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, even if an official of a department works in shifts, one must remember that he works around the clock. "In many countries, the profession of a fireman is in the top 5 most prestigious. We have not yet grown to this," he said.
At the same time, according to Tsolakyan, over the last 6 months, the Ministry of Emergency Situations received 1 million phone calls. This indicator, as the minister pointed out, indicates the extreme workload of the Emergency Ministry Crisis Center. At the same time, not all calls are "urgent" in nature: only 18-20 thousand of them signal any incident requiring prompt intervention by the employees, the rest were interested in the weather and the situation on the roads.
During the reporting period, as noted by Tsolakyan, 2,300 cases of fire were recorded, the largest in the Vahagnadzor forest. There were 29 cases of rockfalls, 13 cases of violation of the utility system, 2 - landslide.
During the blizzard season, temporary support posts of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were deployed in the republic to provide prompt and efficient assistance. In the mobile strongholds rescuers are on duty, who provide urgent assistance to citizens stranded on the roads. 24-hour strong points operate on the Sisian Zanger highway, on the Karvachar road, on the Sotk Karvachar section, in the area of the Selim Pass. "The Ministry of Emergency Situations finally managed to completely resolve the issue with the rescuer uniform. We also solved the problems with the provision of the department with fuel", said the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Nevertheless, as pointed out by Feliks Tsolakyan, the ministry still faces numerous problems, and, above all, associated with the modernization of the existing fleet. At the beginning of the year, according to the minister, within the framework of the assistance of government of Japan, the Emergencies Ministry was provided with 10 all-terrain vehicles fully equipped with the latest technology, 18 fire engines are expected to arrive under the Japanese assistance program, 22 more are expected in August of this year. 26 fire engines will be received from the Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Center. "This will allow replacing the completely outdated fleet of the Emergencies Ministry," said Tsolakyan. Feliks Tsolakyan is convinced that the Ministry of Emergency Situations today is a structure. "Thanks to the daily hard work, we have reached such a level of professionalism that we can lend a helping hand to our neighbors. Most recently, Armenian rescuers provided humanitarian assistance to Iranians affected by floods. At the same time, Tsolakyan noted, the task of revising of their priorities. "Today, the rescue service mainly focuses its efforts on eliminating the consequences, but it is necessary to focus on prevention," he said. Within this policy, in particular, intends to develop the skills of civil defense of the population. For example, the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia has agreed to the introduction of discipline in the school teaching program of "civil defense".To recall, by the state budget for 2019, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia was allocated 10,017.5 million drams, instead of 9,711.3 million drams in 2018.