The new UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia, Consuelo Vidal, who started working here in November 2005, has frozen some UN programs and sent the majority of the staff on a two-month vacation. She announced that she would decide the continuity of the programs only after studying them in detail, after which new standards would be implemented to choose experts. The only staff members at work nowadays are the "portfolio managers" - to use UN terminology - who coordinate a number of programs, as well as some program managers. The new UN representative returned from her Christmas vacation in early February but has yet to start work in earnest.

According to members of the staff at the UN Armenia office, Ms. Vidal came to this unexpected decision on December 14, 2005, after a visit by President Robert Kocharyan to the UN representation in Yerevan. The official press release stated that the visit was on the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of the United Nations. During the visit, both office management and individuals responsible for the programs were present. According to those who were there, the president expressed dissatisfaction with the UN reports, the content of which contradicts the official government stance. They also said that the president did not hide his discontent with the experts either, saying that it was not clear what standards were used to choose them.

After the President's visit, Ms. Vidal froze four UNDP programs, including those dealing with corruption and human rights. Our sources have told us that the president was especially dissatisfied with the anti-corruption program. UNDP information associate Aramazd Ghalamkaryan disapproved of the phrase "freezing the program". He admitted that there were problems at the UNDP office, but claimed that they were of an administrative nature. He insisted that the anti-corruption program had had a duration of one year and eight months and concluded in December. Besides that, he said that the program might be subjected to major changes, and an international expert is currently expected to review the program. As for the human rights program, Ghalamkaryan said that it had been funded mainly by two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Norway, and that negotiations were currently on with the main donor, Sweden, aiming at the continuity of the program.

It should be noted that the anti-corruption council had discussed the methodology of the anti-corruption program and approved it, after which program officers prepared the program details and set up a list of events. This is why it seems unlikely that the anti-corruption program has been interrupted in order to subject it to major changes. Well-informed sources suggest that the suspension of the program was due to personnel factors, especially emphasizing that program managers had hired non-expert staff members.

Nevertheless, the UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia has decided to introduce structural changes to the office - to limit some programs, combat overstaffing and remove non-expert staff members, and to be involved in the formation of the new staff through tenders and the introduction of new standards. This includes even long-time workers at the office, who have already been informed that they will be required to participate in this tender on par with new candidates.