Armenia proposes using government bonuses to combat coronavirus

Head of the opposition faction Enlightened Armenia Edmon Marukyan has called on his fellow MPs and ministers to donate their bonuses to the Coronavirus Foundation.

“The minister receives a salary of 700 thousand drams [$ 1400], with a bonus of 1.5 million [$ 3000]. Why can’t he donate this bonus? The same applies to MPs whose bonuses exceed 30% of their salary,” Marukyan inquired at a parliamentary briefing on March 31.

The opposition appealed not only to parliament members, but also other government officials.

Earlier, parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan also made the same proposal to his colleagues.

So far, MPs are only urging each other to contribute to the fight against coronavirus. No decision has yet been made.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan has already donated the March bonuses of municipal government employees to medical workers.

Altogether, this amounted to 130 million drams (260,000 dollars).

“This is just a small contribution that we can make to our medical workers, who are helping us every hour of every day,” Marutyan said during a live broadcast on his Facebook page.

The mayor himself also donated his March salary (429,000 drams, approximately $860), since he does not receive any bonuses.

All this money, according to Marutyan, will be sent to 1,800 employees at hospitals, clinics and ambulance services.