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The NA Inquiry Committee for Studying the Use of Funds Collected by the "Hayastan" All - Armenian Fund and Transferred to the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia convened a sitting on January 14 too.

How and within the framework of what programmes did the department spend the money collected by the "Hayastan" All - Armenian Fund conditioned by martial law of 2020?

The former Minister of the RA Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop Arakelyan, who held the post from November 20, 2020 to April 23, 2021, provided clarifications on the issues raised by the Committee members.

The former official stated that conditioned by the war, the social programmes were implemented exclusively by the financial support of the Ministry and with internal redistributions. Mesrop Arakelyan noted that during the period when he held the post, the Ministry did not have any budget process with the fund and did not receive direct funding. Certain redistributions from the financial resources of the fund were made by the Ministry of Finance. The allocations were used to provide accommodation to the families displaced from Artsakh. In Armenia, the host families were reimbursed 30.000 AMD per adult per month, and in Artsakh – 45.000 AMD. The former official stated that the programme was used by the citizens of the settlements outside the territory under the control of the Republic of Artsakh – about 9000 families. The actual compensation of beneficiaries started from December 1, 2020. Within the framework of the assistance programme, in parallel with the pensions provided to the pensioners from Artsakh by the Republic of Artsakh, the RA relevant department transferred 68.000 AMD to each of them as assistance.

In their questions, the Committee members referred to the programmes providing stable income for the people from Artsakh and for the measures to be taken to restore normal life in Artsakh as soon as possible.

The Committee Chair has added that in the near future, there will be also discussions in a working format, current and former officials will be invited. The use of financial resources collected by the fund and transferred to the RA State Budget will be studied in more detail.