National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia

05/31/2023 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/01/2023 01:03

Performances of budget allocations for 2022 of Commission on Television and Radio, Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the Prime Minister and[...]

Performances of budget allocations for 2022 of Commission on Television and Radio, Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of the Public Television and Radio debated

According to the Chairman of the Commission on Television and Radio (CTR) Tigran Hakobyan, the financial allocations by the state budget of the CTR for 2022 was about 325 million drams, 324 million drams against the specified budget, the factual performance - 99.6%. The Commission Chair informed about this at May 31 joint sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport and on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.

One programme and three events were carried out.

Tigran Hakobyan noted that 85% of the allocated sum of money is the salary fund. 12 million drams were returned to the state budget because of vacancies. In the financial year 5 out of 7 judgments were made in favour of the CTR. As the CTR Chairman assured, in 2024, a new project on media literacy is designed, as the media literacy is of rather low percentage.

It was noted that the considerable part of the expenditures designed by the draft state budget of the CTR for 2022 was directed to the project Regulation of the Video Audio Media Sphere, and its aim is the provision of the freedom, independence and diversity of the broadcasting media.

The High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the Prime Minister Zareh Sinanyan presented the budget execution of the Office led by him for 2022.

In the financial year 578 million 945.000 AMD was allocated to the structure. According to the rapporteur, it was necessary to add the allocated sum of money by 186 million 919.100 AMD for properly implementing the specified programmes. the total was 765 million 864.100 AMD, the expenditure - 723 million 561.400 AMD. 42 million 302.700 AMD was returned to the state budget.

83 million 649.100 AMD was allocated to the program Step Toward Home, and 7 million 681.700 AMD saved money was decreased.

11 million 806.700 AMD was allocated for the implementation of the Diaspora Youth Ambassador program, and 2 million 330.800 AMD was saved.

Zareh Sinanyan also presented in detail the budgetary allocations, expenditures and savings of 2022 for the implementation of the events Armenian Diaspora Communities, Repatriation and Integration Center, Support to Armenian Language Media of Georgia.

The rapporteur informed that within the framework of the measure Due to Building Work and Repair the services of the territory were not obtained, and online system of the measure will be obtained in 2023. According to him, 22 million 928.000 AMD decreased, the expenditure of the measure was 5 million 503.200 AMD. The Involvement of the Diaspora's Neruzh of the RA development process program was fully accomplished, and, according to the Government decision, the allocated sum of money for it increased by 179 million 579.400 AMD. The expenditure of the implemented program, was 365 million 22.000 AMD, the saved 18 million 882.000 AMD was returned to the state budget.

During the year 2022, 13 business trips were carried out.

The Chairman of the Council of the Public Television and Radio Ara Shirinyan, presenting the performance of the Council for 2022, noted the budgetary allocations of very year do not exceed the financial allocations of the previous year. The rapporteur presented his viewpoint on the role and significance of the Public Broadcaster in the European countries.

Ara Shirinyan documented that the performance of the financial year of the Public Television Company was 165%, as the Junior Eurovision was organized in Yerevan. He also mentioned that from 2015 until now the Public Television (TV) Company was not technically equipped.