Lragir, Armenia
Nov 24 2006

SALARY IS EVIDENCE BUT ALSO THE ONLY LEGAL THING

On November 27 the National Assembly is going to discuss the state
budget bill and decide what to do with it. There is no need to worry
about the budget. We may even be sure that this bill will be passed.
And not because it will be discussed on November 27. This date is
highly mystical. It is a time when nobody does anything, but as a
result something happened. For instance, nobody votes to the
referendum on Constitution, but it turns out that the referendum was
adopted with queues of voters everywhere. So, in the end it may turn
out that the members of the parliaments of the previous convocations
came and voted for the budget. The government perhaps chose the day
of the extraordinary meeting on purpose in order not to have the
members of parliament control the situation. The bill on
expropriation taught a good lesson to the executive, and even if
Tigran Torosyan is not in the parliament, an important document such
as the budget should not be exposed to risk.

However, the government need not worry. Even if the budget is not
passed, no one in the country will feel that there is no budget. Of
course, the pensions and benefits, as well as the salaries of
state-financed workers may be endangered. However, today it is
impossible to live on the benefit or pension of the budget, and the
state-financed workers would even be happy if their salary was not
paid from the budget. The point is that the salary fills them with
remorse. For instance, the doctor whose salary is raised by the
government feels remorse when he takes the fee from the patient,
because thus the patient pays the doctor twice: first, through the
budget, as a taxpayer, and second, in cash, as a customer. Meanwhile,
the doctor would be happy to get only from the hand of the patient.

The government raises the salary of the teacher ruthlessly, whereas
the teacher would be happy not to get a salary at all. Thus he would
have more moral rights to ask money from the students or their
parents for curtains, brooms, vaccum cleaners, tablecloths, the
graduation ball, the first love, and the like, or accept their gifts.
Whereas now the teachers undergo a stress when they learn that the
students leaving school or the first-grade schoolchildren have a
small gift for them, such as a golden ring or a dinner.

Let alone the high-ranking and not so high-ranking public officials,
who get their salary from the state budget. Busy with a state
business of a particular importance, they have no time to go to the
government and officially reject the salary. The point is that the
salary is real evidence for the prosecutor. You can judge yourselves.
When someone sees how an official lives, he is amazed how he can live
such a luxurious life on his small salary. They start doubting, and
it is possible that they will be charged one day, like Member of
Parliament Hakob Hakobyan.

But when the official does not get a salary, besides preventing
doubts he also has an `extenuating condition.’ For instance, if a
public official does not get a salary but works, it means he is doing
a favor for the state and the public by serving for free. And the
public and the state will by all means appreciate him. The same
example: if Hakob Hakobyan had rejected the salary for all these
years, they would have certainly pardoned all the tax breaches he is
accused of.

However, strangely enough nobody learns from Hakobyan’s case and
rejects the salary he gets from the state budget. On the other hand,
they are doing the right thing. After all, their only tie with the
law is their salary, and if they reject it as well, even the best
lawyer will be unable to save them. Therefore, the budget is
necessary, and the members of parliament will vote for the budget,
even if it is not November 27.

HAKOB BADALYAN