By Samvel Avagyan

The RA Government made an unfavorable decision on the bill on antimonopoly regulation drafted by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) faction. The decision is on the agenda of the RA Government’s sitting on July 1. Thereafter it will be sent to Parliament.

The ARF proposes toughening antimonopoly and competition protection control, unifying the Commission for Protection of Economic Competition and Public Services Regulatory Commission, with the newly formed commission to be accountable to the RA Parliament. To substantiate the bill, the authors pointed out the “lack of any policy” and “the lack of accountability to the public.”

The Government declined the charges. Moreover, reporting to the National Assembly means the commission will become a “politicized body.” The bill, however, only says the Parliament will approve annual reports and results of the commission’s work. The Government is surprised at the fact that the bill provides for resignation of the commission chairman in case the Parliament does not approve two successive reports. Under law, the RA Parliament has nothing to do with the appointment or election of commissions.

The ARF cannot be claimed to be completely sincere in its struggle against monopolies. For example, under the bill an opposition candidate is first to be nominated for the post of commission chairman. So the ARF turns out to have drafted the bill for itself. However, with the protection of competition at such a poor level in Armenia, consumers hardly care about who will chair the commission: a Republican, Dashnak or a degraded opportunist official. Samvel Alexanyan may be the best candidate, as proceedings are most often initiated against his companies. If he fills the post, the Commission for Protection of Economic Competition will at least stop playing cat-and-mouse.

RA Premier Tigran Sargsyan has repeatedly pointed out the necessity for struggling against monopolies. The Republican Vardan Aivazyan stated recently that no results can yet be seen.