The government has a ‘monopoly’ over submission of proposals in regard to its structure, and this is why parliamentarians weren’t able to submit their versions for reforms in the structure of the government. This is what leader of Bright Armenia Party and head of the Bright Armenia faction Edmon Marukyan said during briefings at the National Assembly on 11 March.

The MP informed that the political party is preparing an alternative proposal that will be aimed at maintaining several ministries. “The National Security Service, the Police and the State Revenue Committee need to be included in the government’s structure as ministries. We have also considered the possibility of including the agriculture sector within the Ministry of Economy. However, we are leading negotiations with experts since many of them claim that that is not the right thing to do,” Marukyan clarified.

He stated that members of the Bright Armenia Party are also holding discussions on maintenance of the ministries of culture and energy. Touching upon optimization of the public administration system, the political party leader stressed the fact that the economy can’t grow when everything is optimized.

He also stated that there have been specialized systems for years and the reduction of those systems and transmission of functions to other authorities won’t allow for the solution to the problems. Moreover, in the future, it might turn out that there may be serious problems, if the government decides to restore the eliminated institutions because the longstanding specialists will either emigrate or find jobs in other countries. According to Marukyan, all this may lead to a serious shortage of professionals.