Simonian’s office said on Thursday that the year-end bonuses, equivalent to their full monthly salaries, will cost taxpayers 143 million drams ($300,000). It argued that payment of the so-called “13th salary” on the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays has long been common practice in the Armenian parliament.
Parliament deputies did not receive such bonuses one year ago, in the wake of the devastating war with Azerbaijan. Then speaker Ararat Mirzoyan allocated them only to the staffers.
Simonian approved similar, albeit slightly more modest, bonuses on the occasion of Armenia’s Independence Day marked on September 21.
Both opposition alliances represented in the National Assembly criticized that decision as profligate and unethical Lawmakers representing them donated their bonuses to victims of the war and their families.
The Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs are also critical of the latest allocation. Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasian said he and other deputies from the bloc will meet soon to decide whether to accept the bonuses.
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian was confident that members of his faction will again use the bonuses for charitable purposes. “In one way or another, we give such money back to the people,” he told said.
Members of Armenia’s 107-seat parliament currently earn roughly 500,000 drams (just over $1,000). On top of that, they are paid 250,000 drams each to cover their job expenses.
The official monthly wage in the country stands at almost 200,000 drams.
Vahe Ghalumian, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, defended the latest payouts.
“I find it normal that people working at the National Assembly get a 13th salary,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We must strive to raise all pensions and wages in Armenia.”
Ghalumian would not say why the Armenian government is not planning such pay rises next year.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian significantly increased the amount and frequency of bonuses paid to civil servants and especially high-ranking government officials after coming to power in 2018. That prompted strong criticism from opposition figures and other government critics.
Pashinian has repeatedly defended these payouts, saying that they discourage corrupt practices in the government and the broader public sector.
Varuzhan Hoktanian, a program coordinator at the Armenian affiliate of the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, dismissed the official rationale for hefty bonuses.
“It looks like they did the [2018] revolution to improve their lives,” Hoktanian said, referring to Pashinian and his political team. “At the end of the day, the state budget is losing money. While that was done illegally in the past, they now deduct public funds in a legal way.”