ArmInfo. The Ministry of Finance of Armenia plans to solve problems in the system of managing state finances, in particular, to exclude inefficient spending of state funds by introducing a digital public procurement site and mechanisms for monitoring the results of spent funds. Armenian Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan told reporters on March 22 at a press conference.
According to the minister, in the part of introducing a qualitatively new system for conducting public procurements, substantial work has already been done. As for introducing real mechanisms to manage the efficiency of spent of public funds, Vardan Aramyan stated that if the people of Armenia give their vote of confidence to the Republican Party of Armenia in the upcoming elections, the Government members will undertake real reforms in this area. "This means the implementation of monitoring mechanisms that will not allow inefficient use of budgetary funds", the minister said.
This will be done, as the head of the Ministry of Finance said, by involving the procurement process of state-owned CJSC, SNCO and Funds on a single digital platform, which would mean publicity and accountability of the funds spent. Second, the Ministry plans to achieve the transfer of SNCO accounts, state-owned CJSC, to an automated information system for treasury budget execution that excludes the human factor. "And this means full control over the process of managing the state finances", the minister said.
To recall, the new law "On Procurement" will come into force on April 25, 2017. The law is primarily aimed at increasing the efficiency of the use of public funds and exclusion of the corruption risks by ensuring transparency of procedures throughout the chain, creating equal competitive conditions for all participants in the process, accountability of persons participating in it and the availability of all information on the electronic platform armeps.am. According to the preliminary data of the Ministry of Finance, in 2016, purchases were made in the amount of 188.5 billion AMD, against 297 billion in 2015. In 2017, the planned budget for purchases, compared with 2016, will not change. At the same time, following the results of the full entry into the force of the new law "On Procurement", the Finance Ministry expects not only to increase the transparency of the entire system, but also to expand the range of participants.