Thursday, 6 October 2016
Karen Karapetyan: Improving quality and efficiency of public services is a government priority
A regular Cabinet meeting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan.
Before proceeding to the meeting agenda, the Prime Minister issued instructions for a number of economic sectors: “My first instruction refers to public procurements. At the latest Cabinet meeting, I suggested the Government discuss the possibility of making centralized procurements and submit a relevant proposal.
In view of the above, I give the Minister of Finance two weeks to prepare and submit a draft legal act on partial centralization of procurements, which should be based on the following principles:
Firstly, the purchase of goods of periodic consumption, as well as certain services and works must be fully carried out in a centralized manner by a specialized structure on the basis of consumers’ consolidated demand. The list of such procurements will be determined by a government decision.
Secondly, the contract implementation results shall be available in electronic format so that the acts of acceptance and the payment procedures will be carried out and approved only in electronic format.
My next assignment focuses on public services. We have made some surveys, based on which I instruct as follows:
1. Take note that the quality and efficiency of services provided by State agencies are seen as a government priority and any new regulation as specified in draft legislative acts should take account of it.
2. Ensure maximum availability of services to the public in terms of quality, timing and distance, you should conduct appropriate surveys and submit to the Ministry of Justice a list of services offered by the agencies under your jurisdiction, describing each service and the documents required.
3. The Ministry of Justice should compile these data and submit a proposal to the Government Staff. As an alternative, I would suggest looking at the possibility of delegating some powers to the private sector.
4. In order to solve the above problems, Minister-Chief of Government Staff David Haroutunyan should formulate specific recommendations within two days, specifying the responsible persons and the dates of performance.
We must provide our citizens with a possibly open and transparent platform so that they could get answers from government agencies as soon as possible.
As to the simplification of governance procedures and the strategic planning of budget programs, I am instructing the heads of executive bodies,
1. Submit to the Government Staff within ten days recommendations on those decisions eligible for adoption by the heads of executive agencies.
2. Minister-Chief of Government Staff David Haroutunyan shall summarize the recommendations so received and submit a proposal on appropriate amendments to legal acts. Note that 2600 government decisions are introduced during a year.
There are many decisions that can be dealt with on the spot. We wish to create a confidence-based management system in order to trust the members of our team and specify the scope of decisions that they are authorized to implement. By concentrating everything, we will never have efficient management.”
The Government approved a program and an action plan to improve tax revenue administration. The program is expected to reduce the shadow sector of the economy, strengthen the country’s economic security, consistently increase the share of tax revenue in the budget, as well as improve the efficiency of tax and customs administration and the transparency of State Revenue Committee activities.
Commenting on the decision, Karen Karapetyan wanted to know whether the business community had already responded to the proposed amendments. As the Prime Minister noted, the Government often discusses business segment-sensitive laws and decisions in a bid to curb shadow turnover, ensure predictability and transparency.
”However, we do not always mind the way it affects those entities working on the white field and whether it may lead to unnecessary red tape and delays. Please discuss the matter with the business community within a four-day period in order to spare law-abiding businesses the trouble of experiencing unnecessary problems,” the Head of Government emphasized.
The meeting approved a program of long, medium and short-term priorities of State support to the military-industrial complex subjects and the forms of support. The adoption of the relevant decision will promote structural reforms in the defense industry.
The Executive adopted a decision as part of the State export loan agreement between the Armenian and Russian governments to ensure the acquisition of military goods for the needs of the Defense Ministry.
The Government approved a package of bills on amendments to the laws “On Protection of Economic Competition” and “On Administrative Offenses.” The package was passed in a bid to harmonize Armenia’s legislative framework with the legal acts applicable in the Eurasian Economic Union. The drafts will help improve the competitive environment in commodity markets, prevent eventual offenses, as well as identify and eliminate their consequences.
