Over 1 Billion Dram Recovered Following Oversight Activities by the State Regulatory Service

In 2023, the Republic of Armenia's State Regulatory Service (hereinafter referred to as the Service) conducted a total of 40 audits. Specifically, oversight was performed at the Armenian State Interests Fund, the High Voltage Electrical Networks Company under the Ministry of Urban Development, Haypost under the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, the State Health Agency under the Ministry of Health (including counterpart studies at Shengavit Medical Center and the National Center for Oncology named after V.A. Fanarjian), Artashat Medical Center, the Abovyan Medical Center named after Rubik Harutyunyan, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Defense, as well as numerous authorized bodies coordinating public procurement, social, health, agriculture, high technology, and other sectors.

During 2023, the Service carried out a total of 215 ongoing monitoring activities. Of these, 87 were initiated based on public petitions and complaints submitted by citizens. It is noteworthy that these functions were primarily executed in areas such as health care, agriculture, urban construction, taxation and customs, as well as in the oversight of drug importation processes, among various other fields.

As a result of the oversight activities conducted by the Service in 2023, approximately 117 billion AMD in apparent violations were recorded, leading to the recovery of around 1.034 billion AMD. Additionally, around four dozen legislative changes were proposed to the Prime Minister, along with over eighty other suggestions, the majority of which resulted in relevant directives being issued to authorized bodies by the Prime Minister.

Throughout 2023, based on the outcomes of the oversight powers vested in it by law, the Service initiated a total of 90 criminal cases based on 97 recommendations presented to the government (in 2022, 78 recommendations led to 77 criminal cases). Of these 90 criminal cases, 46 are being investigated by the Investigative Committee of Armenia, 43 by the Anti-Corruption Committee, and 1 by the National Security Service.

In line with the relevant instruction from the Prime Minister and taking into account the need to address several systemic issues identified during the oversight functions of the Service, a package of laws aimed at amending the Law on the State Regulatory Service, as well as related laws, has been developed in accordance with established procedures, and is currently under circulation since March. This package will transfer the financial-budgetary oversight powers currently exercised by the Ministry of Finance to the Service.

Within the framework of oversight functions carried out by the Service, attention is also focused on the public procurement sector. Given the numerous risks present in the public procurement processes and the importance of organizing work to prevent and eliminate potential violations and abuses more effectively, the Service’s procurement oversight department has been assigned an additional 10 permanent positions, the recruitment processes for which are still ongoing.

As of now, a total of 633 public petitions and complaints have been submitted to the Service by citizens (compared to 589 in 2022). During the same period, 3,131 letters from state bodies were received (up from 2,909 in 2022), and 2,713 letters were dispatched (compared to 2,548 in 2022).

During 2023, the Service also conducted monitoring in several state institutions on the effectiveness of addressing petitions and complaints directed by citizens to these agencies, the organization of the “Hotline” service, and the efficiency of the reception process for citizens. The results of ongoing monitoring in the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports, as well as the Cadastre Committee of Armenia, have already been summarized and, in accordance with established procedures, reported to the Prime Minister with recommendations aimed at identifying and regulating the noted systemic issues.

The State Regulatory Service of Armenia is consistently fulfilling its assigned powers to reveal and eliminate the ineffective management of state resources, as well as to ensure compliance with legislative norms within the Republic of Armenia, while also facilitating the oversight functions carried out by the Prime Minister.