Arman Sahakyan’s Lies and Justification of Illegality

On May 2, Radio Liberty’s Facebook Conference program hosted Arman Sahakyan, the head of The State Property Management Department adjunct to the RoA Government .

Arman Sahakyan, head of the Ajapnyak regional branch of the Republican Party, made several interesting statements during the conference. We decided to reflect on two of them.

Official vehicles

Touching upon the use of official vehicles by the family members of government officials, Arman Sahakyan said: “But why should the family not use [the vehicle]. Suppose they take the child to and from school, there is nothing wrong with it … I can ask you the same question: why should a private [entrepreneur] have a car, take their child to and from work?”

However, despite Arman Sahakyan, it is not only prohibited by law but is in fact an administrative offense. In particular, Article 134.1 of the Administrative Offenses Code prescribes a penalty in the amount of 10 000 AMD for those public servants, who use of official vehicles and other technical resources for personal purposes.

And while Arman Sahakyan is trying to justify the administrative offense, let’s note, for example, that last year in Japan the governor of Tokyo had to resign just because he drove to his bungalow not on his personal but the service vehicle.

Moreover, from Arman Sahakyan’s words one can imply that the head of the State Property Management Department does not understand the difference between an official vehicle and a private car … And he finds the usage of service property as private by officials normal.

Freedom of information

Speaking about the State Property Management Department’s respect for the law On Freedom of Information, Sahakyan said: “Thank God, we are among those institutions that respect this law and cooperate very closely with the media and various non-governmental organizations.”

However, a few months ago, when we were investigating the false promise of construction of a bus factory in Armenia, we sent an inquiry to the State Property Management Department asking to provide information regarding the amount of money deposited into the state budget from the lease of the space allocated for the factory construction. The Department informed us that, “… they find it inexpedient to provide information about the amount of money.”

While the Law on Freedom of Information, to put it mildly, does not imply that the authority may decide which information provided is expedient and which is not. If the requested information is not a state, service or other secret, it has to be provided.

Therefore, Arman Sahakyan was lying about respecting the above-mentioned law.