2. Ensuring transparency and accountability of allocation of grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia
| Commitment Start and End Date: | 11.2018 - 08.2020 |
| Lead implementing agency: | Ministry of Finance |
| Person responsible from implementing agency: | Sergey Shahnazaryan |
| Title, Department: | Head of Procurement Policy Department |
| Email: | sergey.shahnazaryan@minfin.am |
| Phone: | +37411800260 |
Other actors involved
Other state actors involved
Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Justice, Government bodies
Civil society, private sector
"Armavir Development Center" NGO (upon consent)
Karen Sargsyan (expert)
Issue subject to regulation
The processes of allocating grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia are regulated by the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the State Budget”, the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On procurement”, Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No 1937-N of 24 December 2003 “On approving the procedure for allocating subsidies and grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia to legal persons”.
Grants (hereinafter referred to as "financial resources") allocated to legal persons (hereinafter referred to as "organizations") from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia shall be provided through competition procedures only.
The obligation of an authorised body to publish the financial statements and programme reports of organisations having won in the competitions shall be clearly prescribed.
The "Accountability for grants of the Government; Ensuring transparency and accountability of allocating grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia" commitment purposed by "Armavir Development Center" NGO had already been included in the OGP Third Action Plan. However, only a competition procedure was developed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs within the scope of the commitment, but it was not applied. The commitment was partly performed. The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia applies an on-line system for provision of state grants, which enables to make the state support to youth organisations more transparent and public and to raise the level of effectiveness of the process.
Almost all grants are provided in an uncoordinated manner and without a competition.
The provision of grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia to organisations (including to CSOs) (except for cases prescribed by the Government of the Republic of Armenia) under the competition procedure prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and the application of the unified mechanism for accountability should be made compulsory by this commitment.
Main objective
Review the competition procedure for allocating grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia to legal persons.
Improve accessibility and targeting of the information on the programs implemented within the scope of the financial resources provided, improve accountability and transparency of the sector.
Brief description of commitment
More effective management of public resources, improvement of public confidence, enhancement of public integrity.
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment
Accountability and transparency.
Relevance to OGP values
Effective management of the resources from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia, qualitative change in the grant programs under implementation, raising the level of accountability, transparency, and confidence.
Ambition
Reviewing the competition procedure for providing grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia will contribute to raising the level of effectiveness of spending and targeted use of the State Budget funds.
Publishing the list of organizations having participated and been recognized as winners in the competition for obtaining grants from the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia will lead to an increase in the level of access to information.
Potential Impact:
Implementation status
UN Goals
10.3 Ensure equal opportunities and reduce inequalities of the results, including by way of excluding discriminatory laws, policies and practices, as well as promoting, in this regard, the adoption of legislation, policies and actions.