The program for certification of military servicemen with subsequent increase in their salaries, developed by the Armenian Defense Ministry, will allow solving several problems at once, Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan said at the session of Permanent parliamentary committee on defense and security in National Assembly on Thursday during the debate of the package of bills on making addenda to the law "On Pay of Individuals Placing Government Posts and Civil Servants" and amendments to adjacent laws.

According to the Minister, this will allow providing acceptable social conditions for them, increasing their knowledge and training.

According to the head of the Defense Ministry, this initiative was presented and approved in the Government back in October of this year. In brief, the package of amendments envisages the certification of the contract servicemen. After its successful passage the servicemen will have a chance to increase their salaries substantially. According to the authors of the project, the changes, on the one hand, will allow to increase the level of knowledge of the military and, on the other hand, will solve their social problems.

"At the output it is planned to get a modern army and highly paid servicemen. The certification will initially be voluntary, but the servicemen who passed it successfully, after three years, will be obliged to pass it again. This is done in order to keep the servicemen in good shape" explained Papikyan.

The Minister particularly mentioned that if a contract soldier not on the combat duty currently gets AMD 155k a month on the average, and a combat duty soldier - about AMD 200k, after the qualification examinations the former will get approximately AMD 215k (including taxes), the latter - up to AMD 300k.

In three years, which is the term for full implementation of reforms, the Cabinet plans to spend about 66 billion drams.

"If a serviceman fails the attestation at the first attempt, he will be able to repeat it within a year. Three commissions will be formed for the attestation: a commission of the Defense Minister, a commission of the General Staff, and a corps commission. The minister's commission will certify senior and superior officers. Middle officers will take the exam in the commission of the General Staff, while junior officers and enlisted men - in the corps commission. If necessary, employees of other government agencies may be involved to ensure the quality and objectivity of the certification," said the minister.

After quite a long discussion, the legislative initiative received a positive conclusion of the standing parliamentary commission.