YEREVAN. – It is unconstitutional to provide powers to the State Architecture Committee Adjunct the Government of Armenia.  

Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasyan stated the abovementioned during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting. 

When former Chief Architect of Yerevan Narek Sargsyan submitted the aforesaid committee’s charter and staff makeup for government approval, Tovmasyan asked to speak and subsequently made the following statement:   

“It remains, in disguised form, that it is this committee that makes policy in this domain, and this will run directly counter to the Constitution; the committee cannot make policy.  

“The powers of the state agency may be specified solely by the Constitution and the laws. Here we will confirm that we are giving powers to the committee, which we do not have by law; we have no grounds [for giving it powers]. That is, pursuant to the Constitution, there is nothing about this committee.  

“We will observe that the committee will be an advisory body, [and] its powers must be such that we may normalize these relations by law.”