Prime Minister: It is possible that the Civil Aviation Committee of  Armenia will become a self-financing structure

ArmInfo. It is possible that  the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia will become a self-financing  structure following the example of the real estate cadastre  committee. On April 15, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia  Nikol Pashinyan stated this from the rostrum of the National Assembly  of the Republic of Armenia.

According to him, all over the world, regulators issue paid licenses  for flights, which allows them to carry out their activity on the  principles of independence. In Armenia, this process is free, since  it is generally accepted that the Committee is a state structure and  is financed by the state. It is planned that the status of the  Committee itself will change.

Nikol Pashinyan read an excerpt from the certificate of the Audit  Chamber, according to which, as of October 10, 2018, of the 28  aircraft registered in Armenia, 18 were based outside the country, of  which 10 were in Chad and South Sudan. Through the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the Committee received  notifications from the UN that Armenian aircraft in Africa are  engaged in the illegal transport of weapons, which has received a  scandalous continuation. The EU Commission, in turn, indicated weak  control by the Armenian regulator over the activities of its  airlines. However, as Nikol Pashinyan noted, the Committee has  obligations to its companies, but does not have leverage to fulfill  these obligations. In 2019, European regulators conducted research at  one of the Armenian airlines, according to the results of which they  submitted comments to the Committee. However, the official who worked  with the Europeans did not inform the Committee management of the  results of the audit, which the head of the Committee learned only  two months later from the Europeans themselves. This official was  fired, but managed to get a job in the same company in which the  checks were carried out. In his respect, as well as in another case,  criminal cases have been instituted. The Committee also carried out  personnel changes.