NA Speaker: "Abuse of power exists everywhere"
Armenian National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan today expressed his concern over self-government bodies, saying they have restricted powers nowadays.
Abrahamyan made an extraordinary speech during the second reading of the RA Law on Holidays and Memory Days which suggests enshrining November 10 as Local Self-Government Day in Armenia.
Abrahamyan highlighted the role of self-government bodies in the process of state building and said he was elected Mayor [of Artashat] after the adoption of the RA Law "On Local Self-Government" on November 10, 1996.
"Self-government bodies are well aware of people's problems and are always in the center of voters. We need to boost the institute of local self-government," said the parliament speaker.
"The better the communities work, the less problems the government will have. I am for the decentralization of powers. While holding the post of Mayor, I was able to empower community heads with new authorities. Surely, some of them abused their powers but let us not deny that the phenomenon exists everywhere," said Abrahamyan.
Hovik Abrahamyan today observes the opposite tendency - powers are being centralized in the hands of government ministers.
"This is wrong. Ministers should assist local self-government bodies and help their expansion," he said.
