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On April 13, the parliament debated the issue on appointing a member of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission in the regular sitting.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Babken Tunyan presented Levon Buniatyan on behalf of My Step Faction. He is an engineer by profession and has worked in Electric Networks of Armenia and High Voltage Electric Networks CJSCs. He is the Technical Director of Energy Group LLC from 2019 until today. The candidate presented his working experience, noting that in case of being elected he will be unselfish and his professional experience and skills will serve the progress of the country.

The candidate’s speech did not satisfy a group of deputies. They suspected that Buniatyan would be able to serve the public interest, having worked in the above-mentioned organizations for many years. “Are you ready to serve the public interest, being elected in this position,” Sergey Bagratyan was interested in. The candidate has assured that he is ready to work in such way that there will be no increase in electricity tariffs. “I am in favor of not increasing gas, water and electricity tariffs with both hands, because it will also have an impact on the economy of the country as well as on the consumers,” the candidate clarified.

Artak Manukyan was interested in the problems of the field. Levon Buniatyan highlighted the importance of ensuring the transparency of the commission’s activity, more operative response to citizens’ written complaints etc. Taguhi Tovmasyan suggested the candidate to clearly announce from the NA tribune that there would be no conflict of interests in case of being elected, because he worked in the Electric Networks of Armenia CJSC. “The Commission is viewed by the public as a body that serves the interests of all major organizations. There are almost no cases when an application referred to a tariff increase is sent to the PSRC and it is rejected,” the deputy said, adding that in the face of Levon Buniatyan, he does not see that candidate who can be the public representative in that Commission. Levon Buniatyan clarified that in case of being elected he will not work in favor of Electric Networks of Armenia, on the contrary he is ready to unselfishly work, because he did not work there from 2016. In case of being elected, he will act corresponding to the regulatory law of the field. The candidate has no information about the increase of gas tariffs, as it is not his sphere. As for the issue related to the increase of electricity tariffs, the candidate had also no information about that. He promised to study the documents after being elected. The response did not satisfy the deputy: “If you are going to do what the Commission is doing then it is unlikely that many of the deputies will express their confidence to you”.

The deputies Vladimir Vardanyan, Tsovinar Vardanyan, Sofia Hovsepyan and Arman Babajanyan also considered the vision and work style of the candidate’s work insufficient.

Moreover, Arman Babjanyan urged the candidate to remove his candidacy. “I do not believe that you have so much will to lower the interests of organizations to the public interest, to the real interest of the country,” he concluded his speech.