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“The members of the cabinet should report back to the prime minister why the government programme lacks figures,” the Chairman of Informed and Protected Consumer NGO, Babken Pipoyan, told Panorama.am, commenting on the section of the government programme on overcoming poverty, social protection and demography.

Pipoyan pointed to the fact that the programme contains no figures and the only measurable outcome is about eliminating poverty which is rather a wish not a task. To note the government programme states, it aims to eliminate extreme poverty by 2023 and significantly reduce the poverty.

“When we fail to show the growth through figures and percentages, no control over the implementation of the programme and its outcome can be achieved,” Pipoyan explained. Similar formulations appear with regard of the pensions where the government aims to ensure pensions to receive a continuous above-inflation increase.

“What do we mean by saying continuous rise of pensions. It says above-inflation increase while we all know that the methodology of calculating inflation never considered the actual inflation of the consumer price index. The latter and the general inflation are totally different terms. That is to say event the terms in the programme provide no minimal clue for control over the program implementation,” Pipoyan said.

The experts went on saying all main agenda issues are covered in the programme, yet no tools and figures are put to follow up their implementation. Thus, even a tiny change can be presented as fulfillment of the promise.

“The programme outlines a continuous economic growth. Let’s say if the economy grows by 0.3% it means we still have a growth. Imagine, over the coming five years the economy will grow by 1.5% in total, and the government can say we have fulfilled our promise,” Pipoyan explained, adding without figures the government programme appears to be a compilation of toasts and wishes.