Yerevan mayor’s office under fire for budgeting record $700k for New Year's Eve

Yerevan Municipality intends to spend a record 325 million drams (approximately 677,000 US dollars) for New Year’s events in the capital.

The lion’s share of this amount – 270 million drams (564,000 dollars) – is allocated by the Armenian government, the rest of the amount – 54 million drams (113,000 dollars) will be paid from the city budget.

Many have not taken kindly to the news, particularly the opposition.

The debate even made its way to Prime Minister Pashinyan, who in a live feed on Facebook justified the high costs of the New Year holidays. He believes that a well-decorated capital will attract tourists and will become an incentive for Yerevan residents not to leave the country for New Year holidays.

A long brewing scandal

The hype around the funds allocated for the celebration of the New Year began two weeks ago.

Then, the media wrote that the had municipality allocated 548 million drams (approximately $1.5 million) for the New Year holidays.

Yerevan Municipality denied this information, but the refutation seemed unconvincing to member of the opposition Luys faction of the Council of Elders (city parliament) of Yerevan Tehmineh Vardanyan.

She continued to claim that there is no misinformation and the budget as a whole is about 525 million drams:

“325 million drams are funds allocated only for celebrations on Republic Square, including Goran Bregovich’s concert. There is also a budget for the administrative districts, and all expenses total about 525 million drams.”

Prosperous Armenia MP Naira Zohrabyan also criticised the city authorities on her Facebook page.

“Never since the moment of gaining independence of Armenia has so much money been allocated for the celebration of the New Year. I am not opposed to celebrating the holidays with dignity. But 700,000 dollars is already too much.”

There are 12 administrative districts in Yerevan. Additional financing will be paid to each metropolitan district – another 7 million drams from the budget of Yerevan – for lighting and festive concerts.

This is not included in the above 325 million drams.

But what has even more outraged the opposition is that 11 out of 12 Yerevan districts this year will celebrate New Year in restaurants at the expense of the city budget.

Ani Khachatryan, a member of the opposition Luys faction of the Council of Elders of Yerevan, reports on her Facebook page that a total of AMD 14.5 million (about $30 thousand) will be spent on New Year’s corporate parties.

Last year’s New Year’s Eve bonuses

Last New Year’s did not pass without scandal either.

In January 2019, it became known that government officials in various positions wrote huge bonuses to themselves and their subordinates on New Year’s Eve.

Yerevan Municipality, in particular, allowed itself a prize of almost a million dollars. Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan rewarded 1,628 employees with a total of $974,000.

At the same time, he said that the previous authorities deceived the public and wrote themselves bonuses not only once, but several times a year, but his team gave up this practice.

The PM’s justification

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan commented on the cost of New Year’s events in 2019 on his Facebook page:

“We are solving a very important socio-psychological, economic and aesthetic problem. It is no secret that many citizens of Armenia celebrate the New Year abroad, and this is a rather serious problem for the country’s economy, since there is an outflow of money. We set ourselves the task of ensuring that more and more citizens celebrate New Year in Armenia. The task is also to stimulate the influx of tourists into the country,” the prime minister explained.

How much was spent in the past?

Here is a list of spending in previous years:

2014 – 113,120,000 drams (237,148 dollars),

2015 – 136,141,900 drams (285,410 dollars),

2016 – 157,180,200 drams (329,518 dollars),

2017 – 192,478,000 drams (403,517 dollars),

2018 – 222,351,800 drams (466,146 dollars),

2019 – 271,797,000 drams, to which 54 million drams from the capital budget (677 thousand dollars) were added.

Social media reaction

The festive budget has become the number one topic of discussion among Armenian Facebook users.

“They are stealing from our budget! It is unacceptable!”

“In the case of revolutionary government, this is simply unacceptable, because it is in our capital that many families will celebrate the new year in extreme poverty …”

“Employees of administrative districts receive a high salary! Why don’t they pay on their own for corporate parties?”

“Well, since an actor became the mayor of the city, it’s clear that the situation should be so deplorable …”

“Well, at least for once it will be nice to walk around the city on New Year’s Eve.”