In his year-end interview with the press the Regional Governor of Kotayk, Kovalenko Shahaldyan, stated that 2007 turned out to be a propitious year for the Region especially in terms of executing community budgets.

While in the previous year there were 17 communities with payroll deficits, by the end of 2007 there were only 4 rural communities similarly in the red - Goght, Sevaberd, Kotayk and Jrarat.

As of January 1, 2007, the community of Saralanj had an outstanding debt of some 500,000 drams for payroll and social expenditures, but by November 1st it had settled the previous year’s liabilities and was able not to incurr any additional arrears in the current year. 

On September 1, 2007 the 60 pupils of Saralanj were presented with a newly constructed school building. The village as yet doesn’t have a kindergarten. Naturally, this isn’t the only problem the village faces. The village’s water mains and roads haven’t been repaired, nor is there any gas supply. 

The majority of Saralanj residents seek work abroad to make ends meet. Yerchanik Khachatryan relates that, “We have no real jobs. We keep some animals, one cow, and one bull calf, and about 10 sheep. That’s how we get by. My son went to Russia to work and I went to Yerevan, but I couldn’t find any work. What else can we do here in the village besides producing some milk and growing fruit? There’s nothing else. The fields aren’t in great shape. We got nothing from last year’s planting. We left the crop as is and harvested what remained as feed hay for the animals.”

Many of the villagers are disappointed with the crop yields (the village has a total of 360 hectares of tillable land). If there’s no harvest in the village it’s pretty difficult to collect land taxes. According to Hakob Badalyan, Staff Manager at the Saralanj Community Council, “There’s no farming equipment, fuel is expensive, the villager can’t till and sow his land at the right time. How is he expected to fully pay land taxes? Even 50% isn’t being collected. We must prod and beg for what we eventually collect. Generally most pay what they can little by little. I’ve grown up with these people; we live together. I know what their family situation is like.”

Everybody knows the problems and concerns facing the other village residents. According to custom, on the day we visited Saralanj all the men folk had assembled next to the mayor’s office and were debating the concerns of the village and the country. Some of them were in the club playing chess and backgammon. In the large hall warmed by a wood stove there seemed to be all the conveniences needed for leisure activities. Village resident Mihran Melkonyan stated that the mayor recently had the hall renovated.

All were aware of the work carried out by the mayor’s office. We were told that they take all their problems to his office. Sashik Muradyan said that, “ There’s no issue that we don’t take to the mayor. Even if you’re sick, just call him on the phone and he’ll take you to the hospital. The other day somebody had returned from Russia. The mayor went to the airport to pick him up. And he didn’t take any money for gas.”

Last year the budget of Saralanj totaled about 5 million drams, of which 1.5 million was state credits. Out of the budget some 600,000 drams was allocated for the renovation of the club and to obtain fuel. 1.5 million drams was spent to construct a statute of the “unknown soldier”. The cemetery was cleaned up and a wall erected around it. Potholes on the roads were filled with sand but given the village’s elevated location all the sand was eventually washed away by the rains. 

In 2007 twenty-two hectares of village land was sold off. The villagers knew about the land auction. “Everything went by the book” they told us. However only one of the 6 land purchasers participating in the auction was from Saralanj. The mayor knew beforehand that this would happen. Mayor Gegham Zilifyan stated that, “Those lands put up for auction weren’t going to be sold. We could have set the reserve bids at 50% of value or even 30%. We knew there wouldn’t be many takers. The auction committee gave the council the go-ahead to set the auction reserve bids at 100% face value.” The reserve price for the land was set at 580,000 drams and 22 hectares was sold at that price.

With the proceeds the village could have been supplied with gas or the water mains could have been repaired. However, for the past ten years the village had accumulated arrears to the pension fund. Penalties had been tacked on to the balance and as a result the courts then decided to place liens on the community council’s property and financial funds. Mr. Zilifyan noted that, “ They took possession of all incoming revenues while current liabilities continued to accumulate. After appealing to several tribunals we were able to get our debts cut in half. We still haven’t paid this amount off since they’ve frozen our budget. According to the decision of the Court of Finance some 8 million drams from this small village was paid to the pension fund. That liability was incurred before 1996, before I took office. During the era of the Village Council a large payroll debt was accumulated.”

The decisions to freeze the community council’s property and monetary assets were handed down on February 2, 2007. It was with the approval of the Council of Aldermen, that the Community Mayor’s proposal for a land sale in Saralanj to finally pay off its debt went ahead. This was a necessary step since there were no tribunals willing to freeze the debt penalties.

During our conversation the Community Mayor would often chime in that, “ 8 million drams is a huge amount for a small village like Saralanj.” He added that, “ We need more than 20 million to supply the entire village with gas. We don’t have those resources. There’s a problem with the supply of drinking water; we have to lay new pipes. It’s up to us, and nobody else, to see that it all gets done. I really can’t say if the government will assist us or not. The government refused to fund the last proposal we submitted to them for gas and roadwork. They told us - we’re already renovating your school, isn’t that enough.”

The Mayor said that no one in the village wanted to be nominated for the Council of Alderman. The village had gone without this Council for a long time. “ They tell me, what kind of a budget do you have that we should come and oversee it? In the nearby village some 30 people put forth their candidacy for the job. Here, we didn’t even have 5 people”

The freeze placed on the property of the Saralanj Community Council was finally lifted. No longer will the following ‘property’ be under the threat of confiscation - some broken chairs and worn-out desks, fireproof cabinets and the blackboard now nailed to the wall behind the Mayor’s desk that was taken from the ruined building that once housed the school. Till now the library’s books are under ‘lock and key’. There’s no place to store them or the resources to do so even though the position of librarian exists. At their next meeting the Council of Alderman will take up whether or not to donate the books to the school for free.

Kotayk