On December 11, Tigran Virabyan, was the guest of Public Television’s program hosted by Petros Ghazaryan. The host touched upon the upcoming events. As it is known, the Municipality plans to spend $ 750,000 for New Year celebrations. The Deputy Mayor brought documents with him and presented how much money had been spent in previous years based on that documents; “199 million 46 thousand AMD was spent in 2017, 167 million 860 thousand AMD in 2018, 158 million 582 thousand AMD in 2019. That is to say, during the 2017-2019 period the municipality has reduced the expenses for New Year events by 40 million AMD.” Petros Ghazaryan interrupted, “But this is not $ 750,000.” The guest added: “We are talking about ordered service, when, as a result of discussions with the government, the citywide event turned to a nationwide one and the area of celebrations increased.”
Petros Ghazaryan also asked why they had invited Bregovich, and wondered if they could not invite 21st century celebrity. He also asked which organizations have they ordered this or that service from. Do they belong to friends or relatives? These issues are, in fact, being discussed in public, but the omission was that Petros Ghazaryan was not aware of the information related to costs, and the deputy mayor manipulated. As a result of the internet searches, we were able to find other data, according to which for example, the municipality spent 139 million 329 thousand drams for the New Year celebrations back in 2017.
“Media Advocate” urges the publicly funded television to present verified information.
