ALREADY TO GOVERN BY A CONCEPT

Lragir.am
03 Aug 06

The government of Armenia adopted the concept of management of
state property during the meeting on August 3. It means that further
management, including privatization of the state property will be
carried out in accordance with this long-term concept. "It provides
for the principles, goals and objectives of management of the state
property," says Ashot Markosyan, the assistant head of the Department
of State Property Management.

It is notable that the government of Armenia has privatized 80
percent of the state property and has just remembered the necessity
of a concept for the remaining 20 percent and adopted it. Perhaps
the remaining 20 percent is of special value for the government and
it should be sold in a special way, in accordance with a concept.
Besides, it is more fashionable, not to allow accusing of not having
a concept. In the meantime, there was not a concept when it was
needed, but when there is almost no state property, the concept of
its management is adopted.

Ashot Markosyan says the concept concerns not only privatization but
also the enterprises which have already been privatized. According
to Ashot Markosyan, one of the underlying questions of the concept
is the question of the authorized representatives of the state to
companies partly shared by the state.

"The problem is that presently there are problems with their functions,
rights and duties. For instance, on what basis does the authorized
representative of the state make one decision or another or endorse one
decision of another? The next problem is their salary. Today, in fact,
this question is in the air. The concept sets the objective to approach
it from the point of view of public interest," says Ashot Markosyan.

On the whole, the concept of management of state property has a single
goal: the government needs to manage state property effectively,
and if it is going to privatize it, the public interest should be
taken into account. This lofty goal of the concept suggests that so
far the government has not managed the state property effectively and
did not privatize it in favor of the public interest. Simply now
they are thinking about tomorrow. After all, noting is eternal,
including power, and perhaps in preparing to leave the executive
decided to adopt a concept to make the next government also to manage
the state property effectively and privatize it in favor of the public
interests. We can only appreciate the farsightedness of the government
and even forgive some short-sighted steps of the conceptless times.