The lowest salary at schools is about 19.500 dram, and the highest salary is about 48.000 dram. Yerevan State University lecturers get about 65.000 dram (only a part of this money is provided by the budget), and this in case when the lecturer is a candidate for sciences. The salaries at the Agricultural, Architectural State Universities are less. But for example the salaries at the Medical and Economy State Universities are a little bit higher. Anyway, with this information we can form our own opinion about how the scientists that teach the future specialists of the country are paid. The lowest salary at health care institutions is 13.000 dram. Of course the salaries are produced according to the working experience and positions. But how much can it be increased to satisfy?
The budget of 2006 is going to provide 20 % increase of the salaries of the officers in state institutions. It is going to provide 40 % increase of the salaries of the foreign affairs diplomatic mission officers. The budget is also going to provide increase in the salaries of schoolteachers and artists (not to mention the increase percentage of these specialists in the budget). Now let’s find out how much the employees of the Central Bank are paid. Currently the average wage in the CB is about 303 k dram. And the budget of the next year is going to provide about 337 k dram. Of course it is a very good fact that state officials get much money, but the money for other important fields is nothing in comparison with the money of this field. Lecturers see that their students later get more money than they do. So what do the workers of the CB do? Yes, it is clear that they prepare good specialists for the banking system. But how do they do this? Of course they do this on the basis of serious expenses from the budget. As the CB is a non-profit organization, and in addition as the head of the CB noted recently, as long as the exchange rate for USD keeps going down they will not get any profit.
We will try to analyze this kind of difference of money distribution in state institutions from another point of view. Do the people that plan the budget think that the employees of the CB don’t have any other sources for money but the employees of other companies do? In fact teachers and state officers can take bribes. But a lot of people just have to do this, because of the fact that their financial situation makes them do this. In other words in this way the government supports the development of corruption, which is one of the main problems that prevents the country from developing.