Friday, 16 March 2007
Today the Governing Council of Millenium Challenge Account - Armenia SNCO has met at the Office of Government, presided at by Council Chairman, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan.
The Council has discussed and approved the 2006, October -December quarterly MCA-Armenia program performance report, the request for a third disbursement under the program and the report on preconditions fulfillment, as well as the technical bid assessment results concerning the tender invited for consulting services to be provided under Oversight of 6 Water-Mains Design and Construction activity and other questions of topical interest.
In the quarterly report, MCA-Armenia CEO Ara Hovsepyan mentioned that all the preconditions specified in the Agreement on Allocations having been met as of December 31, 2006, a first disbursement to the amount of USD 1, 389.000 was made available based on a request made to that effect. In the framework of said preconditions compliance, the management staff of MCA-Armenia has been elected, with the interim financial accountability plan approved and launched. At the same time, all the components of the executive chain have been established and are operational currently. The first implementing entity contract has been signed with HayAvtoChan SNCO. The speaker said that the first quarterly procurement plan was complete in accordance with the established time-schedule. The first agreement on consulting services has been concluded with Sweco Int. (Sweden), which will carry out the feasibility study for rural roads and the preliminary design of the proposed road sections.
In the system of program oversight, Mr. Hovsepyan emphasized the role of the 15-member-strong civil society-elected Council of Beneficiaries which is supposed to ensure the direct involvement of the civil society in program activities and the publicity of implementing entity's daily operations.
Among the targets achieved, the speaker mentioned the formation of MCA-Armenia SNCO's 22-member-strong highly qualified expert staff through transparent voting procedure. According to the report, there is a long-discussed working and financial plan already available which focuses on rural road rehabilitation (USD 67 million) and Irrigated Agriculture (USD 146, of which 32 millions will go to Water-to-Market activity).
Ara Hovsepyan presented in all detail the work done in the accounting period under the above-said projects and the efforts made for the environmental-social evaluation, as well as coordination, management, monitoring and assessment of the MCA-Armenia program. Among the main directions of the 2007 first quarter activities, Mr. Hovsepyan mentioned the drafting of concept notes on communities and water-user company studies, the development of Water-to-Market activity implementation methodologies and technical proposals for quality assessment for submission to the Governing Council, the MCC etc. The speaker similarly referred to the problems encountered and the corresponding trouble-shooting measures.
For submission to the MCC, the Governing Council has approved the request for a third disbursement under the program, as well as the preconditions fulfillment report for the third quarter of the first year. It was noted that under the rural road rehabilitation component, in particular, the MCA-Armenia has already presented the 2007 plan for Lifeline Road Network upgrades and maintenance, acceptable to the MCC.
The Council also discussed and approved a series of other instruments, including the procurement performance report, the procurements plan, the competition procedure under the procurements plan, which will allow bidding entities (commodity and service providers, contractors) to claim revision of adjudicator's decisions. The Council-approved audit plan specifies the requirements set for the auditing of MCC funding recipients.
In conclusion, the meeting has discussed the results of the evaluation carried out for the technical proposals on the consulting services to be provided under Oversight of 6 Water-Mains Design and Construction activity of the MCA-Armenia program.
