ArmInfo.The works of the diplomatic missions of Armenia abroad will be fully financed from the state budget of the country. This decision was made at a government meeting on April 25.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, until recently, persons who had no relation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were appointed heads of missions of the republic abroad. These persons were not financed from the state budget, they did not rent residential space at the expense of the state, and, thus, these expenses were not included in the budget of the foreign ministry. Now it is proposed to introduce a fundamentally new approach, according to which employees from the RA MFA structure will be appointed heads of diplomatic missions of the country. "Thus, we intend to carry out work on the nationalization of state activity," Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stressed, adding that an additional 350 million drams or about $ 745 thousand will be allocated from the state budget for the implementation of the task.
In turn, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that some diplomatic missions of Armenia could be qualified as "private embassies". "The property in these embassies did not belong to the state, but a private person who, nevertheless, acted on behalf of the state," the head of government stated.
To note, earlier, as a rule, people "from business" were appointed as heads of diplomatic missions of Armenia, who used incomes from their business in their official activities, thereby obtaining certain state preferences.