“The government consists of a prime minister and ministers,” reads the constitution of Armenia. It is defining the provision but does not explain why. Instead of that the fifth clause of the Constitution explains the policies of the government. It is written well but there is no need to read as they have nothing to do with the reality. For example, in the fourth clause of the 55th article of the Constitution it is written that “the president appoints and dismisses the members of the government based on the recommendation of the prime minister.” It means that according to the existing laws the PM has a large scope of rights and powers. The PM has recommended a government consisting of 18 ministers and is organizing a session every month with participation of these people and they call it a “government session”. They discuss domestic and other issues of foreign policy at such sessions. All they try to overcome the impact of the world crisis. But the real picture is quite different and very strange though. For example, two months ago the PM came to work in the morning and was informed that there had been changes in the government and the Prosperous Armenia party had nominated a candidate to replace one of their ministers. The PM agreed with that change and continued to handle the important issues of the state with this new staff. However, the change that happened two days ago cannot be logical at all. The Legal State party replaced two of its ministers. They said that this issue had been agreed with the president as they are a political team and it is important for them to agree the nomination of new people in high rank positions with the president. It is a brilliant idea. There is no word about the policy established by the Constitution and the role of the prime minister. Even more, it seems that the president’s consent is just a formal detail for them as well. It is important for them but not decisive. Now let’s imagine that they may take out a piece of paper and put a stamp on it, give to t someone and say that hence he can be the minister of transport but it is important to get the president’s consent first. It is not serious to demand more from this government which is working in such conditions, or more literally said at such level of political culture. The government develops projects as a group of managers or a political body. Later the ministers go to ministries, make a timeline, schedule, work distribution and give orders to their staff. But the next day the minister’s party is sending someone else to work in the same position. The only thing the prime minister should do now is to introduce these new guys to the government and then take their hand and take to the ministries to introduce to the staff of the ministries. The PM does not even have a right to reprimand the ministers because this minister may go back to the party and organize a press conference and say that he is not going to resign because he is accountable to his party only. Their own and beloved party backs them, as it was done with the minister of agriculture. Based on the processes of the last days it is not hard to assume that the government is not a united body of managers or politicians. The minister of economy tried to announce that the economic crisis was up to ending. One of the coalition leaders openly said that he did not agree with this announcement and made some remark. “We are advising that Gagik Tsarukyan gives estimation to the PA member ministers.” There were other remarks as well. The prime minister tried to make them come down and said that there are shortcomings in all ministries. In fact he sees these shortcomings but does not have an opportunity to overcome those shortcomings. In consideration of the fact that the prime minister is working in such hard conditions of the coalition, we should give a break for one month and keep from criticizing him during this month.
