Thursday, 26 May 2016
Government Provides for More Transparent Procurement Process
A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.
Before proceeding to the agenda of the discussion, the Prime Minister stated as follows, “To reduce corruption risks in the procurement process, I hereby assign the Ministry of Finance to ensure greater transparency at different stages of this process, providing each interested person online access in the website of e-procurements to the contracts signed throughout the procurement process and the associated documents (acceptance acts, performing acts, invoices, etc.).
At the same time, I wish to inform the public that the public procurement accounts section of the official website of the Ministry of Finance provides detailed monthly reports on purchases made most frequently in the preceding period, such as fuel, office or household items, etc.
The aforementioned reports contain minimum and maximum prices established during the current month for a given product, the average prices offered by winners, the standard margin of deviation, etc. The website features data on the lowest and highest prices, as well as the winner’s price for a separate purchase.
While the amount of information so disclosed is a good basis for implementation of public control over the procurement process, I would further assign the Ministry of Finance to develop a software solution that would enable each visitor of the e-procurement website to draft a statement of their own by choosing a specific parameter available on the website. This is a serious concern to society, and the Government must implement these measures to ensure greater transparency in the procurement process.”
The meeting adopted a decision on establishing carpool quotas for individual government agencies. Accordingly, considering the Prime Minister’s directive issued at the Cabinet sitting of 12 May, 2016 regarding the carpool cutback in accordance with the procedure set out in the Annex, the decision seeks to ensure compliance with the Premier’s recommendation in line with the applicable legislation.
Commenting on the decision, Chief of Government Staff David Haroutunyan noted that the process is underway, with additional 30 vehicles to be struck off during this week.
The Government decided to allocate funds with a view to settling a number of priority issues in Lori and Tavush Marzes of Armenia. Minister of Territorial Administration and Development David Lokyan noted that the problems were voiced during the Premier’s May 4 working visit to the provinces. The resources so allocated will be used to renovate a kindergarten in Tumanyan town of Tumanyan community and rebuild the roof of an apartment building located at Street N3, residential district N4 in Tumanyan town of Lori Marz.
According to the Minister, another important question is going to be solved under the Prime Minister’s assignment: funds will be earmarked to make out a cost estimate for the repair of a damaged school building in Zorakan community of Tavush Marz. Thus, the community will have a new school building next fiscal year. A water supply network will be built in Jujevan community to solve the problem of drinking water in the district. And, finally, roads will be asphalted in Voskevan community of Tavush Marz.
David Lokyan reminded that during his visit, the Prime Minister was asked to help provide housing for a Zorakan-based family of a perished soldier. Mr Lokyan informed that the construction has already started and will be completed within the coming months. In this connection, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said no budget funds will be earmarked to this end: “Business people have supported our undertaking, and together, we will build the house.”
Another decision was passed to allocate money for completion of a water pipeline in Yeghnik community of Aragatsotn Marz of Armenia. According to the reference note, the community’s drinking water supply system is in poor condition. The quality of water supplied does not meet the necessary standards.
Noyemberyan community of Tavush Marz was included in the list of recipients of social assistance. The Minister pointed out that either this issue was discussed with the Prime Minister during his visit to Tavush Marz. The above decision was adopted in an effort to improve the living conditions of Noyemberyan residents. Welfare assistance will henceforth be provided to community residents in the form of partial compensation of natural gas, electricity and irrigation water fees, as well as full compensation of land and property taxes.
The meeting approved a proposal to sign a number of agreements, including, in particular: “On exchange of information about power plant accidents in CIS countries,” “On cooperation of CIS-member States in promoting vocational education in the energy sector,” “On CIS countries’ cooperation in matters related to exchange of information on evacuated radioactive sources,” “On CIS-member States’ cooperation in the field of geospatial information sharing in the best interest of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States.”
