THE SALARIES OF THE JUDGES DOUBLED
LILIT POGHOSYAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
28 Nov 08
Armenia

Despite the disagreements regarding the issue of doubling the salaries
of the judges: from 220 thousand to 440 thousand drams, yesterday the
parliamentary majority voted for the `pro-judge’ amendments in the law
on `The Salaries of the RA Legislative, Executive and Judicial Bodies’.

Thus `Bargavach Hayastan’ and RPA ensured the majority of the votes.
`Orinats Yerkir’ mainly abstained and `Heritage’ party refused to
participate in the voting.

Below we bring to your notice the pro & con of the representatives of
the parliamentary factions.

Stepan Safaryan, Secretary of `Bargavach Hayastan’ faction.

`I voted for the bill because during the discussions which we had with
the government on the second half of the day yesterday and today in the
morning, our apprehensions allayed. As the Speaker of NA informed us
before the voting, they have reached an agreement on giving package
solution to the issue, most probably in the spring of 2009.

The problem is after 2003 the proportion of the salaries in different
state structures have been breached for different reasons. It is high
time to restore those broken proportions, beginning from the Control
Chamber, where the salaries really differ from the others, to the
Deputy Ministers, Heads of Departme
nts, Heads of Divisions, and other
officials, where there is no logic.

This field must be regulated and we received a confirmation that in
Spring 2009, it will be realized.

`Anyhow what was the reason of showing special attention towards the
judicial system? Do your coalition partners also believe that the
system will become uncorrupted and impartial?’

`In my view the logic here is to contribute to the reforms in the
judicial-legal system. Most probably this is the reason why the
government decided to firstly raise the salaries of the judges, because
strict measures are previewed to be introduced in this system. That is
to say on the one hand they raise the salaries and on the other hand
they make the control, stronger. One without another is not possible;
this is the reason of such haste.

Stepan Safaryan, `Heritage’ faction.

`We are against this bill, firstly because the proportion of the
salaries of legislative, executive and judicial bodies shouldn’t be
broken.

Secondly in our view we shouldn’t do that unless we raise the minimum
salary, so that each citizen will be able to satisfy his or her needs.

And thirdly before reviewing the official salaries in any system we
must firstly discuss the effectiveness of that system. If it turns out
that there are obstacles and raising the salaries is one of the options
of eliminating those obstacles then
we can choose that way.’