Armenia's Ministry of Defense Responds to State Oversight Service Publication

The Ministry of Defense of Armenia has issued clarifications in relation to the publication of the State Oversight Service's statement.

In response to inquiries from several media outlets, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia informs that according to the statement published on the official website of the State Oversight Service, www.supervision.am, the latter has conducted a study regarding the legality and effectiveness of the procurement process for fuel purchases for the needs of the Ministry of Defense in 2019. The report resulting from the study has been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia for legal assessment of the identified violations.

In this regard, the Ministry of Defense considers it necessary to inform that each budget year, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia carries out about 1000-1100 procurement processes, each of which typically contains 8-10 items. Moreover, the number of ongoing procurement procedures at various stages is between 50 and 200 on a daily basis, and the processes related to the implementation of signed contracts represent a considerable volume.

In the organization of procurement procedures and the execution of contracts, there can naturally be complaints, shortcomings, and issues related to supplies. For this reason, the procurement activities of the Ministry of Defense are constantly under the scrutiny of various oversight and law enforcement bodies. In this context, it is normal that both criminal and judicial processes are periodically initiated within the framework of the procurement processes of the Ministry of Defense.

It should be noted that the mentioned shortcomings may indicate issues related to the ethics of the officials responsible within the Ministry of Defense. Nonetheless, we assure that the Ministry of Defense of Armenia consistently and rigorously implements serious measures aimed at enhancing and strengthening the ethics of employees involved in the procurement processes.