Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is trying to conceal the true intentions by means of a word-play, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) says in a statement.
When commenting on the Armenian President's statement that the Government will bear the burden of the raised electricity tariffs until the audit is over, the ANC says that this promise will be carried out at the expense of the taxpayers, i.e. the money will simply be moved from one pocket into another. The ANC says that the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) is audited annually. Ernst&Young's conclusion points out the ENA mismanagement, the ANC's statement says. Serzh Sargsyan's statement does not even mention that the situation in the country is the result of the fact that the state governance bodies and law-enforcers were too permissive towards the ENA, the embezzlement and abuse. This means that the plunder was permitted by the top management of the country. As regards Sargsyan's remark that the expenses will be compensated for by the funds allocated for security, the ANC qualifies it as blackmail. "Serzh Sargsyan is trying to conceal the true intentions by means of a word-play in order to gain time and achieve protest subsiding," says the statement. So, the ANC thinks that Sargsyan is trying to mislead the public and hide the corruption at the ENA.
The protest actions against the Public Services Regulatory Commission's decision have been held in Yerevan since June 19. On June 17, the PSRC took a decision to raise the electric power tariffs on August 1, 2015. On June 27, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that the Armenian Government would bear the burden of the raised tariffs until the ENA audit was over. He also said that the ENA might be nationalized. For his part, David Harutyunyan, Minister-Head of the Armenian Government Administration, said that the audit at the ENA might last for 3-6 months.