By Kristina Ter-Matevosyan

When it comes to flying here and there, ostensibly on state business, Armenia’s Ministry of Economy is no slouch.

From 2014 to 2015, ministry staffers were sent on 118 such trips to four of the world’s five continents. Australia was the exception.

36 trips were to Moscow. Beirut was the second most frequented destination-11 trips. Minsk, the Belarus capital, came in third with 7 trips.

As per data supplied by the ministry, it received a budget of 93.9 million AMD  to cover travel expenses in 2014. During the year, the ministry spent 70% of the travel budget, 67.7 million AMD, on 65 working trips worldwide.

In 2015, the ministry spent 53.2 million AMD on 47 trips.

In the above two years, just for airplane tickets, the ministry spent 69.9 million AMD . The remainder covered daily expenditures, hotel costs, etc.

A High Flyer - Former Economy Minister Karen Chshmarityan

The most expensive business trip in 2014 was taken by then Minister of the Economy Karen Chshmarityan. (He served as minister from 2014-2016)

A trip he took to Washington D.C. that year cost 6.5 million AMD – 5.3 million AMD ($13,000 based on the exchange rate at that time) on the airplane ticket and 1.251 million AMD for lodging and pocket money.

Accompanying Chshmarityan were Deputy Minister Garegin Melkonyan and Artak Baghdasaryan, head of the Department of Economic Development. 3 million AMD apiece was spent on them. Their tickets cost 1.202 million AMD.

Officials, to justify their expensive flights, argue that they often must purchase airline tickets at the last moment and thus, at a premium.

Hetq did some investigating and found out that a roundtrip business class ticket to Washington D.C and back from Yerevan can be purchased, a mere three days before the flight, at 1.5 million AMD.

Naturally, airline tickets fluctuate with the season and the time of purchase. But forking over $13,000 for a roundtrip Yerevan-Washington D.C ticket seems to be a bit much. No?

Armenian taxpayers shelled out 6.5 million AMD for a business trip Chshmarityan took to Latin America, with stopovers in Buenos Aires, Santiago and Montevideo. A tad over 4 million AMD  was spent just for the ticket to Buenos Aires and back.

While in office, Chshmarityan spent many more millions in taxpayer money on business trips around the world, ostensibly to jumpstart Armenia’s struggling economy.

Armenia’s taxpayers await a final accounting.

Photo: Karen Chshmarityan (Ministry of Economy website)