"Zhoghovurd" daily writes: "The state has paid for the Dilijan and Gyazadzor seminars of CP MPs (with some exceptions, also the opposition) and quite a large amount, about 630,000 US dollars. Of course, the title is training, consulting, capacity building.
Typically, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) supports government agencies in various countries around the world with grants, technical assistance, and expert resources. However, in Armenia, the opposite financial flow also works. According to the 2024 financing agreement, the staff of the RA National Assembly committed to allocate 240,600,000 drams to UNDP.
• The payment schedule is in the same article.
• 25.12.2025 – 120,300,000 AMD• 25.12.2026 – 120,300,000 AMD The daily newspaper "Zhoghovurd" tried to find out why the RA National Assembly transferred money to the UN, what results the program should provide and how justified this state expenditure is.
With the request, we addressed to the head of the staff of the RA National Assembly, Davit Arakelyan, to clarify the legal basis of the financing of 114 million 765 thousand drams on April 30, 2026, the content of the program, the paid services, the existence of a competitive procedure, as well as the control mechanisms for the use of state funds.
The NA staff replied that "The basis for the financial transfer made by the RA National Assembly to the United Nations Development Program is the funding agreement signed between the NA staff and UNDP dated 07.05.2024." By the way, that agreement was signed on May 7, 2024 and refers to the "Promoting RA NA response capabilities, efficiency, transparency and inclusiveness (MAP 2.0/FORSETI)" program. It is planned for 2024-2027 and is implemented by UNDP with co-financing from the governments of Armenia, Sweden and Norway. The total budget of the project is about 3.19 million US dollars.
What does the National Assembly do with that money, according to the answer of the National Assembly staff: "The purpose of the project is to support the development of the parliament's capabilities through training, expertise and consulting." Meanwhile, the official description of UNDP shows that the program has much wider goals than just organizing courses.
It plans to increase the institutional capacity of the parliament, improve communication with the public, strengthen parliamentary control, support the legislative process, fight against disinformation, and increase public trust in the parliament. The results of the program include, for example, at least a 7 percent increase in public awareness, training of at least half of MPs and staff, and the development or revision of at least 10 policies with the participation of civil society.
Meanwhile, in reality, there is no parliamentary control in our country. The National Assembly is under the sole control of the CP. all positions belong to CP, decisions are made by them. And why without a competition, the "Zhoghovurd" daily newspaper also inquired whether a competitive procedure was carried out in the case of the allocation of such a volume of state funds. The answer of the National Assembly is one sentence.
"The only implementer of the project is the UNDP, which is an international supranational structure." In fact, no competition or alternative selection mechanism was used, since the partner is an international organization, so the money should be given to the UN itself. MAK TREATY ON SCREEN IN ENGLISH Where is the budget justification? "Zhoghovurd" also studied the decisions ensuring the implementation of the government's budget.
With them, it is confirmed that among the activities planned for the staff of the National Assembly is also included the financing of the project implemented with UNDP, and the result indicators are defined by the government's decision N1910 of December 25, 2025 and its subsequent amendments. However, the budget documents do not indicate the cost of which specific service for 240.6 million drams, how much money is allocated to consulting, how much to trainings, how much to expert work or administrative costs. The National Assembly did not present such a detailed financial distribution either. How is the money controlled? According to the National Assembly, "The program submits a quarterly report on all activities carried out to the staff of the RA National Assembly, and annually submits an annual report to the Program Council." Project board meetings were held on 05.05.2025 and 21.04.2026.
In the project council, the results of the previous year are discussed and the work of the next year is approved. The question remains open. And the effectiveness of the program has no actual measurement, nor control, because the CP deputies actually went on vacation to resort cities with the funds of the UN and the state, where they participated in some courses or listened to speeches. What it gave to the National Assembly, to what extent the institutional capacities have increased, remains very unknown.
The documents show that legally, the cooperation between the National Assembly and UNDP is formalized, and the program is a multi-year initiative implemented with international co-financing. However, the same documents do not answer the most important question: what measurable result the Armenian taxpayer received and will receive for 240.6 million drams. If a private company buys a service, it is usually presented: what work was done and at what cost. In the case of state funds, the same transparency is no less important.
And in this case, the public still does not see how the estimated 630 thousand US dollars from the state budget affected the efficiency, accountability or legislative quality of the Parliament's work.
