"Zhoghovurd" daily writes: "After the transition of the Republic of Armenia to the parliamentary government system, the president's institution turned into a mainly representative structure. However, even with these limited powers, the public has the right to expect accountability, transparency and visible activity. Today, however, the study of the RA President's office raises many questions.
The first problem is the lack of transparency. "Zhoghovurd" daily revealed that the information published on the RA President's official website is limited and often does not provide a complete picture of how state funds are spent. The latest available information on purchases refers to several purchases made at the beginning of the year: 720 thousand drams were spent on data collection and classification services, 221 thousand drams were spent on insurance services.
Since then, almost no new information has been published, which makes public control over the use of state funds difficult.
The problem of transparency is especially obvious in the conditions when the president's staff is financed from the state budget. The public must be able to find out what programs are implemented, what services are obtained and what results are provided for those costs. However, the available information does not allow us to make such an assessment. The second problem is the content poverty of the activity. Most of the news published on the official website of the President consists of congratulatory and condolence messages. For example, one of the June 17 publications on the website refers to the congratulatory message sent on the occasion of Iceland's national day, and the most recent publications are dominated by congratulations addressed to the leaders of different countries. Of course, sending congratulations on international holidays is part of the representative functions of the head of state.
However, the question arises: is this the main and most visible activity of the presidential institute? When the information flow of a state structure consists mostly of protocol messages, it is difficult to understand what additional value is created for the public.
The problem is not only the president's personality or the current staff. The problem is institutional. If the presidential institute has an annual budget, staff and administrative resources, then the public should see not only congratulatory messages, but also initiatives, analyses, positions on public policy, discussions on public issues and accountable activities.
In this situation, a natural question arises. if the institution of the president is actually limited to ceremonial and symbolic functions, then does the structure maintained in its current scope correspond to the principles of effective state management?
And if the institution has an important role, then why is that role not expressed in publicly accessible, measurable and transparent activities? In a democratic state, any state body should not only exist, but also justify its necessity with results, accountability and open work.
In the case of the Institute of the RA President, the questions surrounding these three components remain unanswered."
Details in today's issue of "Zhoghovurd" daily.
