The Armenian government intends to purchase three Toyota RAV4 SUVs worth a total of 54 million drams (approx. $110,000) for the motorcade of National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan. The draft decision is put on the agenda of Thursday’s cabinet meeting, and the issue is not subject to discussion.

In substantiating the expense, the government says that the SUVs accompanying the official vehicle of the speaker “cannot ensure his safe travel due to their technical characteristics.”

In this regard, the parliament staff carried out a monitoring in the market and considered it expedient to buy three SUVs from Toyota Yerevan CJSC at a discount.

The government decided to allocate funds to buy Simonyan a high-class BMW worth nearly $185,000 last year.