AGRICULTURE MINISTER NOT GOING TO RESIGN

Noyan Tapan
March 16, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. "I am not going to resign, and my
party is satisfied with my work". This was the answer of RA Minister
of Agriculture Gerasim Alaverdian at the March 16 press conference
when a reporter asked him to tell the reason why he continues to work,
while the other ministers from Country of Law party have been removed
from their posts, especially as the minister of agriculture recently
received a reprimand from the prime minister. G. Alaverdian considered
the reprimand as part of the "work process", adding that he has quite
good labor relations with the prime minister.

To recap, a number of serious shortcomings at the RA Ministry of
Agriculture were revealed by the supervisory service of the prime
minister who has ordered to conduct an internal investigation with
the aim of dismissing two employees of the ministry.

G. Alaverdian said that henceforth reporters will be present at
procurement tenders of the ministry of agriculture. In his words,
the budget suffered no losses due to the revealed shortcomings in the
state procurement process because vaccines have not been purchased
yet in 2010.

The minister also ruled out the existence of monopolies in agricultural
sector. "If there were a monopoly organization, as the minister
of agriculture, I would know that. I first saw the director of that
organization immediately after the tender", G. Alaverdian said, adding
(at the insistence of reporters) that the organization is Biouniversal
LLC, and its director is Tigran Sahakian.