Health Minister and Wife ‘Have Final Say’ on All HIV/AIDS Funding Allocated to Armenia

Mamikon Hovsepyan, the executive director of Public Information and Need of Knowledge NGO (PINK Armenia), claims that disposition of funds provided by international organizations for HIV-positive persons' care and support needs is determined solely by the family of Armenia's Health Minister Armen Muradyan (pictured).

Competition for HIV-positive persons' care and support Global Fund grant conformed to the Armenian legal framework and was conducted in accordance with competition regulations, the supervisory body of the Event Coordinating Committee (ECC) announced after looking into the allegations of biased grant distribution decision made by one of the contest participants, “Real World, Real People” NGO, against the selection committee. 

However, Mamikon Hovsepyan, a former ECC member, does not agree with the Committee’s ruling: “Supervisory body member Armen Aghajanov was the only one stopping them from [giving the above-mentioned assessment]. They removed him from the body at the last moment and issued a quick decision. In this sense, the group acted quite suspiciously. They claimed that Aghajanov had a conflict of interest with ‘Real World, Real People.’ However, Aghajanov explained to them in detail that as a member of the HIV positive community he had a conflict of interest with all of them. In other words, he received support [not only from ‘Real World, Real People’ but also] from the AIDS Prevention Center and the Health Ministry.”

The Pink Armenia leader added that the grant winning nonprofit, “Positive People Armenian Network,” has promised assistance to a greater number of people with less money. However, Hovsepyan believes these numbers to be “unrealistic” and “fictitious.”

“The entire money provided to Armenia by the Global Fund is managed by a single family: the Health Minister and his wife [Yelena Amirkhanyan]. Part of the sum is initially given [by the Fund] to the Ministry, the other part – to Mission East, where the minister’s wife works as the HIV/AIDS project team leader. This is an apparent conflict of interest. The money provided by the Global Fund is in unreliable hands; the minister and his wife have the final say in deciding whom to give the money to, and the creation of [selection] committees is a mere formality,” Hovsepyan stated.