Tovmasian: Investigative Committee won’t be heavy burden on state budget

By a unanimous vote of the members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on State and legal Affairs, a package of the draft law on Armenia’s Investigative Committee and the draft laws on amendments to a number of related laws was put on the agenda of four-day sessions of the NA.

Armenian Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasian said that the creation of the Single Investigative Committee is necessitated by several circumstances.

“We should unite investigative practice and all economic and material opportunities as the current five investigative committees differ from each other in their status and material and social guarantees. So it is necessary to set up a single investigative committee to solve the problems and raise their professional skills,“ the minister noted.

Member of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Karen Chshmaritian asked why the committee head is appointed at the recommendation of the prime minister.

H. Tovmasian explained that it is an independent body in the functional sense, but apart from that it has an executive function.
ARFD deputy Artsvik Minasian asked if there are any calculations about how much the committee will cost the state budget. Tovmasian replied that large expenses are not planned, except those on the purchase of buildings. “They are now located at police stations, which is undesirable,” Tovmasian said.