UNITED STATES SCRUTINIZES INVESTIGATION INTO WRONGDOINGS

Lragir.am
11-06-2007 13:49:27

On June 11 the office of the Millennium Challenge Account Armenia state
non-commercial organization was dedicated, which is located near the
government building, across the office of the Republican Party, hardly
10 or 15 meters away. John Danilovich, CEO MCC, participated in the
ceremony, who has twice visited Armenia and has also written a few
letters to the president of Armenia on the necessity for fair
governance as an important benchmark of the Millennium Challenge
program.

The reporters did not have an opportunity to find out the opinion of
John Danilovich on the program, the continuity and performance to
benchmarks because Danilovich declined to answer their questions, and
the officers of the Millennium Challenge Armenia said there will be no
questions, for it is their style of work. According to the style of
work, the symbolic tape was cut, speeches were made by John Danilovich,
the minister of finance and economy, member of the board of the
Millennium Challenge Account Armenia Vardan Khachatryan, and the
resident country director of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Alex
Russin. Danilovich and Khachatryan cut the tape, then walked about the
office which had been set up earlier but was dedicated on June 11.
After visiting a couple of rooms the reporters and cameramen were asked
out.

As to the thoughts of John Danilovich, an advocate of fair governance,
on fair governance in Armenia, the implementation of the program and
the performance on the benchmarks, the reporters learned from his
speech which was fortunately open for reporters, as well as the press
release of the U.S. Embassy which had informed beforehand what John
Danilovich would be saying. By the way, his address to the ceremony did
not differ from the speech that had been handed over to reporters on
paper. At least, the satisfaction of Danilovich with the implementation
of the Armenian program of the MCC, the efforts of the Armenian
government, Millennium Challenge Account Armenia was expressed in both
the text and his speech. During the address John Danilovich said the
government is fully responsible for the program implemented in its
country. The CEO endorsed the willingness of the Armenian government to
assume responsibility. By the way, the prime minister of Armenia Serge
Sargsyan had been said to take part in the ceremony of opening of the
office with Danilovich but he did not turn up. The minister of finance
and economy Vardan Khachatryan said Serge Sargsyan was absent because
he was busy introducing the new ministers, and he has to visit all the
ministries within a few hours.

The only but perhaps the core difference between the text of the speech
by John Danilovich and the real speech was that the statement on the
full responsibility of the government was absent in the text.
Meanwhile, the statement that made the core idea of the text was not
uttered during the speech. The text held that they welcomed the
Armenian parliamentary elections and congratulate the Armenian people
on a more successful election over the previous elections. These
elections appeared to be progress towards international standards, but
they continue to scrutinize the investigation into reported wrongdoing.
According to the text, the MCC board will make a decision on
eligibility of Armenia as well as all the other countries participating
in the MCC in December.