YEREVAN. – In our country, maybe in all countries, there will always be people who are more socially vulnerable and do not have that dreamy, desirable income, and therefore there will always be discussions about how high or low the salaries or bonuses of officials are. Ararat Mirzoyan, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, said this in the talk with the journalists in the NA Friday,

"When I announced that the entire bonus fund [of the parliament] was being transferred to the fight against coronavirus, there were comments expressing dissatisfaction," he said. "They expressed views, from which I realized that people think that the MP receives a bonus of millions of drams."

Mirzoyan also informed that all 700 employees of the NA receive 30% bonuses.

Referring to the complaints that he had decided to transfer the sums of bonuses to the entire staff of the NA to fight against coronavirus, Mirzoyan said that he had learned from the press that there had been complaints, but that no one had addressed him personally and informed about it.

He noted that only the March bonuses of the MPs were transferred. "Almost all of the deputies because there were 1-2 deputies who either had already transferred money or were from the provinces," he noted. "In any case, almost everyone’s bonus has been transferred."