Wednesday, October 20 2021 16:37

ArmInfo.Purchases from one supplier, carried out in the state system, account for only 3% of the total volume of state purchases without a tender. This was stated by  Deputy Finance Minister Avag Avanesyan, on October 20 at a meeting of  the parliamentary commission on economic issues, responding to the  remark of the Deputy Chairman of the Commission, MP from the "Civil  Contract" Babken Tunyan that due to the increase in the volume of  purchases from one supplier, the authorities are accused of  corruption.

So, according to the Deputy Minister, the policy of the financial  authorities, in general, is aimed at reducing the volume of purchases  from one supplier. At the same time, the Deputy Minister urged to  take into account the objective necessity of such purchases, for  example, in the sector of public services - electricity, gas, etc.  There are also purchases that the state is obliged to carry out from  a specific manufacturer, this concerns, in particular, the defense  sector. "Most of the purchases from one supplier are carried out by  the healthcare system, and this is not related to the coronavirus.  The fact is that 90% of healthcare services are provided according to  the following scheme - regional hospitals are ordered "directly",  he  explained.

At the same time, as the representative of the Ministry of Finance  emphasized, purchases from one supplier make up 40-45% of total  purchases, of which 90% fall on the share of the health care system,  5-7% - for public services, the remaining 3% - direct purchases from  one supplier " ,  said Avanesyan.

Earlier, on June 1, Chairman of the Audit Chamber of the Republic  Levon Yolyan in parliament during the preliminary discussion of the  annual report on the execution of the state budget for 2020, said  that in the reporting year, about 40% of contracts concluded by state  bodies were made by purchasing from one supplier, which is 4.4% more  than in 2019. "Thus, competition in the field of procurement has not  changed - the average number of procurement participants at the  auction was about 1.7," Yolyan said.

To recall, in March 2018, the then Deputy Minister of Finance Karen  Tamazyan said in an interview with ArmInfo that if, compared to 2015,  purchases from one supplier in 2016 decreased by more than 2.5 times  - from 21.2 billion drams or 18.3% to 6.6 billion drams and 7.2%,  then in 2017 the indicator decreased to 5.7%. In 2018, the department  pledged to reduce purchases from supplier to 5%. In addition, as the  Deputy Minister reported, in 2017, purchases were automated from one  source, thus depriving the customer of the opportunity to take and  carry out purchases from one person. For this, it was decided to hold  very short, one-day tenders, where the average number of procurement  participants at the auction was about 1.1.

In April 2019, answering a question from ArmInfo, Head of the  Procurement Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance of Armenia  Sergey Shakhnazaryan said that the Ministry of Finance had worked  towards increasing competition in the system. As a result, according  to him, the average number of procurement participants increased: if  in 2016 the average number of participants was 3.3 (applications for  participation in one tender), then on ay-o-y terms, it was expected  that the figure would be about 3.5 - 4. It was noted that in  international practice, an indicator in the range of 3-4 is  considered average, normal, 4-5 - good, which indicates confidence in  the procurement system in the country, as well as the establishment  of equal competitive conditions.