Minister’s call for support presented as abuse of administrative resource

Verelq.am website published a news story with the headline “Blatant abuse of administrative resource by the minister right under Nikol Pashinyan’s nose (photo)”, in which it provides information about alleged abuse of administrative resource by Acting Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Hakob Arshakyan.

According to the website, a secret questionnaire was circulated among the ministry staff which the latter were allegedly supposed to fill in, mentioning what type of assistance they are going to provide to the minister during the upcoming snap parliamentary elections.

The alleged copy of the questionnaire is attached to the publication as proof.

First of all, let us note that this questionnaire is not secret. The Minister personally posted it on his Facebook page, attaching the following note:

“Dear friends, supporters. I run as “My Step” Bloc MP in Constituency N2 (Davtashen, Arabkir, Ajapnyak). I will accept assistance from each of you with love, pride and a great sense of responsibility. Please follow this link and fill in the questionnaire.”

Arshakyan also asked to share the link in order to involve more supporters.

In other words, the questionnaire is not secret, and the questions mentioned there are not intended for the ministry staff as the news website claims. It is directed to all those who are willing to help. Thus, there can be no word about abuse of administrative resource.