Gagik Minasyan: Armenia is ready to switch to the program-targeted construction of the state budget from 2019

ArmInfo. Armenia is ready to  switch to a program-targeted construction of the republic's budget  from 2019. "Today there are no obstacles that could hamper the  planned process," Gagik Minasyan, chairman of the NA Standing  Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, told a news  conference on November 20, answering the question of ArmInfo.  

Meanwhile, according to the previously approved program of actions,  the transition to the program budgeting system was planned from 2018  onwards.

According to the head of the RA Standing Committee, program budgeting  will solve two major tasks. First of all, when planning the budget,  this gives a clear understanding of the expected result, on the basis  of which a decision is made to send funds to one or another sphere.  In addition, it provides quite a wide range of possibilities for  monitoring compliance. Thus, as explained by the expert, already  within a year it is possible to understand how much quantitative,  qualitative and time result received meets expectations and, if  necessary, make adjustments. "In general, program budgeting is the  most effective method of improving the efficiency of public finance  management and, after moving to this system, budget expenditures,  including borrowed funds, will be spent more productively," he said.

Nevertheless, Armenia has already delayed the implementation of this  principle of budget spending for a year, since, as Minasyan pointed  out, the transition to software budgeting is a rather complex task  and requires considerable time and resources. According to him, in  this case Armenia is a pioneer among the CIS countries. Even many  countries of Europe did not go to the system. "In comparison with a  number of countries that have such practices, the indicators of  Armenia are quite promising," the expert said, pointing out that the  budget hearings in the Armenian parliament are qualitatively  different from those of last year, where, in addition to financial  indicators, there were also other non-financial indicators.