The Government of the Republic of Armenia

First of all, let me say that together with you we have done a large amount of work during the last month to improve the procurement procedures applicable in Armenia. Last week’s Ministry of Finance-implemented monitoring evidenced that the procurement process has seen significant improvement and progress, particularly in terms of contracting, compliance with the provisions included in the contract and the announcement of competition. But it does not mean that all the problems are solved. There are still departments in breach of the procurement process.

Not only do we need to minimize such incidences in August-September, but we will have to eliminate them altogether. This means that we will accomplish another study of the procurement process in October, and I am now asking the ministers to keep the matter under their personal control.

Second, as it was the case last year and the year before, we will conduct monitoring of services provided by the State in September-October. The monitoring is to be carried out by non-State structures, representatives of public organizations. The findings will be submitted to control services, after which we will give our estimate.

In the first place, we are talking about those services available to hundreds of thousands of our citizens that account for people’s attitude to the State itself. You are requested to direct the services under your control to make studies like that in order to address the existing problems so that we could not face unexpected results in September-October.

And third, we have been collecting per-agency GDP data for a while now and are going to hold a separate meeting to summarize the results at one of the regular meetings of the government. Here, too, departments have a job to do.

We will work in the same mode as in the past year. All information will be made available to the State Revenue Committee so that we may identify the per-sector potential for extra revenue.