12:20, 4 January 2024

YEREVAN, JANUARY 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has instructed government officials to inspect the course of implementation of government-funded projects across the country and focus on the quality. 

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, PM Pashinyan spoke about a number of problems that he saw during his recent visit to several towns where new schools were being built.

“I see very serious problems in the implementation of our projects after my visits to the provinces, especially in the ongoing projects implemented in schools. In many cases we deal with [poor quality] related to the blueprinting, development and equipment,” he said.

Specifying the problems, the prime minister said that schools have been provided with volleyball nets for the gyms, whereas the courts have no volleyball markings. “Volleyball is a sport with rules. Now, we’ve given volleyball nets to dozens of schools, but you go into the gym, you ask them where’s the volleyball, there is no volleyball. You touch a hanger in the school and it falls off, wherever you go the water is leaking…,” he said, pointing also to poor quality construction.

Pashinyan said that it’s the governors’ job to inspect the construction.

“In some places I have to visit again, and even three times. Wherever I visit three times, you ought to visit thirteen times. Yes, you ought to go there and hang your coat from the hanger, use the sink, and look what’s happening,” Pashinyan told government officials.

The government will not tolerate such poor-quality implementation, beginning from the stage of blueprinting, he said.

“What matters the most…we tell the children that we’ve opened the new school, go and study. But that child, who’s going to hang a coat and the hanger would fall off, what would that child think about the state? If they’ve installed a 150-dram hanger instead of a 3000-dram hanger, the child will think that the money has been shared between everyone starting from the construction worker up to the prime minister,” Pashinyan said.

“I no longer need explanations for the problems. I need solutions to the problems. Please, don’t give me explanations, come and tell me that the problem has been solved. We no longer need officials who simply raise issues, we need officials who solve the issues,” Pashinyan said.