Performances of Police and Ministry of Emergency Situations for 2022 debated at joint sittings of Committees

The implementation of financial allocations and budgetary programmes of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Police under the 2022 state budget was debated at May 29 joint sitting of the NA Standing Committees on Defense and Security and Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.

The RA Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan presented the budget revenues and expenses of the above-mentioned structure in numerical terms for 2022.

The Secretary General of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Ara Fidanyan noted that the specified programme index of the police was 80.9 billion drams in the financial year instead of 67.3 billion drams in 2021. In total allocations, current expenses amounted to 69.4 billion drams, which is 5 billion drams or 7.8% more than 64.4 billion drams in 2021. Capital expenditures were 11.5 billion drams, 8.6 billion drams from 2.9 billion drams in 2021, or about 4 times more.

It was noted that 80 billion drams were spent in the financial year, the performance was 98.9%. 2 programmes, 12 events were implemented.

Touching upon the involvement of women in the system, Ara Fidanyan mentioned that currently 532 women are waiting to join the patrol service. According to him, by the end of 2024, it is planned to increase the participation rate of women in the police to 30%.

The Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also touched upon the fight against crime, cases of trafficking, and emphasized the importance of intelligence work, in the direction of which large-scale activity is being organized.

The rapporteur highlighted the role and importance of the patrol service introduced in the capital in 2021 in the prevention and detection of crimes.

According to him, the patrol service will be fully introduced in the entire territory of the republic by the end of 2024.

In response to the question of the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan what the reason for the decrease in the number of students in the police educational complex is, Ara Fidanyan said that they do not see a problem concerning the number of students in the educational complex, because the number of those waiting to join the patrol service is only 700. According to him, the patrol service replaces several other services in the police. After the introduction of the patrol service, not a single police officer was fired but was transferred to another service.

Regarding the above mentioned question, according to the RA Minister of Internal Affairs Vahe Ghazaryan, years of experience shows that after receiving higher education in the educational complex and working in the police for several years, these employees leave and work in other institutions, the Prosecutor's Office, etc., as a result of which personnel problems arise.

According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, within the framework of police reforms, it was decided to include citizens who have completed military service in the ranks of the police after nine months of training.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Andranik Kocharyan stated that the Police Academy always provided full legal education. It was stated that the academy had a high index in terms of quality.

Andranik Kocharyan proposed to find a unified format to solve the problem.

The RA Minister of Internal Affairs proposed to jointly debate this issue.

Gevorg Papoyan's next question was related to the increase in the number of certain crimes and road accidents. Ara Fidanyan stated that total offenses in 2021 amounted to 1.881.468, and in 2022 1.655 .183 crimes were recorded. In 2021, 4.604 and 4.309 accidents in 2022 were recorded in the whole country regarding road accidents. According to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is more than the numbers predicted by them, not actually recorded. The number of serious crimes and victims also decreased.

Ara Fidanyan answered other questions of the Committee members regarding the sector.

The implementation of financial allocations and budget programmes provided by the 2022 state budget of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations was also debated at the joint sitting.

The RA Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan presented the budget revenues and expenditures of the structure in numerical terms for 2022.

According to the RA Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Pambukhchyan, 14 billion 205 million drams were allocated to the Ministry in 2022, 14 billion 944 million drams were actually spent, which is 2.3% more than the indicator of 2021, the performance of 2022 was 96.1%.

5 programmes, 17 events were implemented.

According to the Minister, the policy implemented in the field of population protection in emergency situations is aimed at reducing the risks of natural and man-made disasters, preventing and eliminating possible consequences.

8 training courses were conducted. 151 rescue workers were trained, 20 out of them abroad.

Works were carried out in the direction of the creation of anti-radiation hideouts and shelters located in the RA territory within the framework of the Interdepartmental Commission created by the Prime Minister's decision. A schedule for the implementation of the works was drawn up, according to which studies on the placement of anti-radiation hideouts and shelters were initiated in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

In September 2022, the Armenian urban search and rescue team was requalified and received a certificate for a period of 5 years, extending the membership of the UN international urban search and rescue team. The Minister reminded that this group has carried out rescue operations in Syria and Turkey.

In the financial year, two unmanned aerial vehicles necessary for the needs of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for rescue service were acquired. The rescue service was equipped with 17 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), two underwater drones, two-night vision devices, one laser theodolite device, one modern rescue vehicle, and firefighter uniforms.

According to Armen Pambukhchyan, UAVs have already been used during emergency situations to conduct aerial reconnaissance.

According to the decision of the Government, 782 million drams were allocated to the rescue service. Modern fire rescue vehicles have been acquired.

Shoulder-mounted fire sprinklers were purchased for the purpose of extinguishing forest fires.

On the same day, a joint closed sitting of the Standing Committees on the Defense and Security and Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs took place, during which the performance of the budget programmes and financial allocations of the National Security Service (NSS) and state reserves was debated.