Your trusted source

The report of Hetq.am investigative publication on the confidential decision to almost double the salaries of Armenian ministers and their deputies has stirred heated debate on social media.

As expected, a group of ‘whites’ supported the increase of officials salaries, while another group of probably ‘blacks’ condemned the move as ‘absurd’ and ‘dishonest’.

Pensioners, students, unemployed people, people with no job opportunities, people who are late to hold minister’s office ... couldn’t the new government find anything else to do other than reward itself?

It failed to find.

A more pragmatic group insisted that ministers should be paid higher salaries so that they would not start a new job.

Likewise, they claimed before the wages of judges should be raised to prevent them from taking bribes. And the same ‘white’ mass applauded that proposal too.

Or when Mayor Karen Karapetyan got offended and left for a high salary, the same people expressed regret over it, saying: “He was so cute!”

Of course, we can bring many other examples about ‘old and new’ admiration and present more arguments like as if they provided a solution to the problem with their education, and now they suddenly threaten to switch to another job.

But instead of all this let me quote one of the most felicitous comments on the matter I came across on social media: “If the salaries of governors are not competitive, a staff outflow will start and the same governor of Ararat will go to work at Lacoste with a higher salary.”