On March 29, the RA First Deputy Minister of Finance Karen Brutyan met with representatives of non-governmental organizations on the initiative of the Armenian Lawyers' Association NGO.
The guidelines deriving from two targeted areas of “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project were discussed, in particular, regarding the application of energy efficiency requirements for products and services procured under the RA Law on State Procurement and on simplified (citizen's) budgeting mechanisms.
In the first part of the meeting, representatives of non-governmental organizations, presenting the guideline on the application of energy efficiency requirements, noted that the goal is to fill the gap in awareness and methodological manuals on the interaction between the Procurement Law and the legislative framework in the field of energy efficiency.
Karen Brutyan noted that the Ministry of Finance has expressed its support for the practical application of the guidelines, as it would also allow reducing energy costs through energy efficiency.
According to him, the efficiency of the guideline should be assessed through cooperation with the relevant bodies, and the RA Ministry of Finance is ready to support.
In the second part of the meeting, it was touched upon the compilation of citizen’s budget, which aims at making the state budget more understandable to the public in terms of expenses, income and deficit.
“The essence of simplified budget is that broader layers of society are involved in the budget process. The principal addressee should be the citizen and his/her expectations”, - said Brutyan and added that the participation of NGOs during budget discussions of each year should be highlighted.
The Deputy Minister also emphasized that last year the program budgeting system was introduced, through which an attempt is made to transmute the budget from a mere financial document to a document of goals and results. According to Brutyan, all this is aimed at ensuring that information presented by branch ministries is solid, complete and targeted and the process of its creation is visible to civil society representatives.
According to Karen Zadoyan, Chairman of the Armenian Lawyers' Association, the simplified budget should be systematic and its structure should be useful and effective for the citizen.
As a result of the discussions, an agreement was reached on discussing the two guidelines with the relevant ministries. It was also highlighted the participation of NGOs in the 2020 budget process, which will serve as a basis for the efficient organization of public discussions of various budgetary proposals.