The Prime Minister-led government delegations՛ trips abroad were made mainly by special flights, which, in 2015 cost quite expensive to the state budget. Iravaban.net regularly referred to these trips of the Government.
On 5 February, Hovik Abrahamyan left for Moscow to take part in the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. Only the air service of this two-day visit cost 25.8 mln AMD (approximately 54.000 USD). On 3 February the government staff signed a contract with the “Air Training Centre” CJSC for providing the special air services, for flights in directions Yerevan-Moscow on 5 February, and Moscow-Yerevan on 7 February. According to the contract the duration of the flight by the A319 airplane has been 4 hours 50 minutes.
The Government delegation sent to Arabic countries on 11-14 March, again a considerable sum in the amount of 23.5 mln AMD (approximately $ 49.000) was spent. According to the signed contract the flights in directions Yerevan-El Kuwait, El Kuwait- Sharm El Sheikh, and Sharm El Sheikh-Yerevan on March 11th, 12th and 14th respectively, in total duration of 8 hours 10 minutes, were also realized by the “Air Training Centre” CJSC by A 319 airplane.
In May, two (2) contracts for providing services were signed with “Air Training Centre” CJSC. According to the contract signed on 26 May, the “Air Training Centre” CJSC received 16.5 million AMD (about 34 thousand USD) for the round-trip transportation service Yerevan – Kokshetau-Yerevan to Kazakhstan on 28-29 May.
However, it turned out that during this flight an extra flight for the landing of the aircraft had taken place and an additional payment of 6.6 million AMD was done. In other words, this flight generally cost 23.1 million AMD (more than 48 thousand USD).
According to the contract signed on 27 May, the Staff of the RA Government paid 20.6 million AMD (about 42 thousand USD) for the special round-trip flight Yerevan-Prague (Czech Republic)-Yerevan. In this case also a new contract was signed later with the “Air Training Centre” CJSC, and extra 1.64 million AMD was paid for the extra flight time provided during this service. In other words, this flight generally cost 22.2 million AMD (more than 46 thousand USD).
On 3 July, a Government delegation led by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan left for Paris, French Republic on a two-day working visit. Like previously, this time also the delegation led by the Prime Minister left abroad by special flight, worth 31 million 448 thousand AMD (approximately USD 66.000). The contract was signed with “Aviation Training Centre” CJSC on 30 June.
On 8 September, the RA Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan participated in the Eurasian Economic Union’s Intergovernmental Council in Belarus. In order to carry out this visit, the RA Government Staff signed a contract with the Georgian Airways on 4 September, for the flight in the direction Yerevan-Grodno on 7 September and Grodno-Yerevan, on 8 September. The cost of the Georgian special flight services totaled to 24 thousand Euros (13.1 million AMD).
Thus, about 140 million AMD or about 292 thousand USD was spent to cover the costs of the special flight trips of the delegation headed by the RA Prime Minister in 2015.
A.K.
