Cabinet approves payrise scheme for correctional officers

The cabinet on Thursday considered and approved a plan proposing a 30% salary rise for employees of penitentiary institutions.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded positively to the bill introduced by the justice minister, calling for government efforts to step up the law enforcement sector.

He also stressed the importance of recently improved food standards, noting 100% of the inmates today use the food offered by their correctional faciliities (instead of the former 10%-20%).

″That also essentially eases the social burden for convicts and detaniees. Also, we have [many] vacant positions in the penitentiaries now, as the salaries used to be rather low under conditions of high risks,″ Pashinyan said, adding that the decision implies also a de-facto job creation.

Head of the State Revenue Committee David Ananyan later raised the redistribution issue to which the prime minister responded, “We had earlier agreed on a redistribution plan to resolve the problem from now on. So upon seeing the need of extra allocations we will do that certainly  as we maintain the principle.″

Addressing the capital expenditures, Pashinyan admitted that they envisaged record-breaking rates, knowing in advance the little likelihood of ensuring a 100% performance. ″This is why we will do quarterly analyses to see how the capital expenditures were made. I set the task every time to make it clear, as of May 1, what we did and what we did not do in the first quarter. Should we turn out to have secured a 100% outcome, so much the better. No program will be left underperformed and no commitment unfulfilled.″

The prime minsiter emphasized that the proposed payrise will be based upon redistributions.   

He added that 112 out of the available 170 vacancies in the penitentiaries today are positions of leading and junior public servants (with the proposed net starting salaries being AMD 125,192 Drams or approx. USD 260).

The bill proposes total budgetary expenditures of AMD 1,578,585.7 (USD 3,300).