Unfulfilled promise to reduce staff in the Yerevan Municipality

During the discussions of the draft of the 2019 Yerevan budget in November 2018, responding to criticism related to inflated municipality staff, the municipal authorities noted that there is a will to optimize the staff but it will be implemented in December-January.

“… Tell me how we can achieve a qualified staff composed of 2000 people. One problem is that, yes, the staff is inflated, and works have started in that direction. And I hope that by the end of December or start of January we will have finished the optimization system works, and will introduce a new staff, with new principles”: Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Sargsyan announced during the interview on December 18 (5:55- 6:15).

Fip.am sent an inquiry to the Municipality in April to find out whether optimization has been carried out, but no response has been received from the municipality as of May 20. On May 21, the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Municipality noted that they cannot provide information on the issue at this moment and asked to wait for the next session of the Council of Elders.

Following the tracks of the new draft of “inflated” staff list  

A new draft document on the staff list of the Yerevan Municipality and the administrative districts was supposed to be discussed at the May 3 session of Yerevan Council of Elders. This draft document envisages raising salaries of the municipality staff, which, however, was criticized even by the members of the ruling “My Step” Alliance, and Mayor Hayk Marutyan removed it from the agenda.

The study of the draft document makes it clear that the optimization promised in January is planned to be conducted by municipal authorities with this draft document.

According to the draft, the municipality plans to make some structural changes, in particular:

• Reduction of 69.5 positions in the Yerevan Municipality System (municipality and subordinate organizations)
• 38 drivers who are included in the staff lists of “Yerevantrans” CJSC and “Urban Development” CJSC will be transferred to the staff list of Yerevan Municipality.
• 20 staff members will be transferred to the staff list of Yerevan Municipality from “Departmental Buildings Maintenance and Operation” CJSC, and etc.

However, the examination of the draft document shows that due to optimization the number of staff in the municipality will increase instead of decreasing.

According to Decision N 10-A (29 October 2018) of the Municipality, the number of municipality staff is 1998. According to the new draft, that number will make up 2129.5. The salaries of the staff will also increase. The total monthly salaries make up 436 million AMD based on October 29 Decision. According to the new draft, it will make up 591 million AMD. There will be a total annual increase of 2 billion AMD.