Ombudsman needs another 10 million
Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan is asking for an additional 10 million drams to the amount allocated for 2012 to show that the government is truly concerned about the protection of human rights.
This became an occasion for discrepancies between members of the NA Standing Committee on Human Rights Protection and Social Affairs today.
The government has foreseen to allocate 163 million drams to the Ombudsman, but the Ombudsman has submitted an appeal for 228 million, which is nearly 65 million drams more than the foreseen amount.
Karen Andreasyan explains this appeal with the fact that he wishes to open offices in the provinces and there will be a need for additional expenses for petroleum and transportation. However, taking into account the low budget, the Ombudsman has rejected the initial appeal and asks for a symbolic 10 million drams.
"This amount will only cover 0.02 percent of our expenses. It would be immoral, if the amount wasn't added, but more was demanded of the Ombudsman in 2012," Karen Andreasyan said.
He underlined that despite the small sums of money provided to the Ombudsman's office throughout the past years, the Ombudsman has been able to implement his functions to a certain extent by using international grants. "Those grants stopped coming after my election," Ombudsman Andreasyan mentioned.
