FUNCTIONS OF THE SECRETARIAT

1. The Secretariat, for the implementation of the tasks assigned to it within the scope of its powers, shall perform the following functions:

1) shall provide putting into circulation and recording the drafts submitted to the National Assembly for debate of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, draft laws of the Republic of Armenia, as well as resolutions, statements, addresses and other legal acts of the National Assembly;

2) shall provide the professional and organizational - technical service for the sittings of the National Assembly, sittings of the Council, parliamentary hearings, invited sittings for preliminary discussions for the draft state budget, preparation for a debate of issues at a sitting of the National Assembly, preparation of drafts regarding the sequence of debate of the agenda issues of the regular sessions and sittings, regular sittings of the National Assembly, preparation of records of the sittings, shorthand of the sittings of the National Assembly, shall promote the work of the Counting Commission of the National Assembly;

3) shall form and submit  to the Chairperson of the National Assembly drafts resolutions of the National Assembly, resolutions of the Council of the National Assembly, resolutions, orders of the Chairperson of the National Assembly, and drafts of other sub-legislative acts and documents;

4) Shall provide conformity of the  laws of the Republic of Armenia and the draft resolutions, addresses and statements of the National Assembly, submitted to the National Assembly, as well as legal acts and other documents submitted for the signature of the Chairperson of the National Assembly, with the rules of the Armenian language; shall implement their editing, organizing the information entering into computer, co-reading, correcting, recording and translation if necessary, and preparation of their delivery to required recipients,

5) shall provide the promulgation of resolutions, statements, addresses of the National Assembly, resolutions of the Council, resolutions and orders of the Chairperson of the National Assembly; shall provide an online broadcast of the sittings of the National Assembly, its committees, as well as parliamentary hearings; shall manage  the Official Website of the National Assembly (www.parliament.am, Internet and intranet pages);

6) Shall provide consultation to the bodies of the National Assembly and to the relevant subdivisions of the Staff of the National Assembly regarding the implementation of functions of the bodies of the National Assembly, legislative process, procedures of discussions and adoption of the issues at the sittings of the National Assembly and the sittings of the Council of the National Assembly and to other issues regarding parliamentary law; shall cooperate with the standing committees of the National Assembly, with the relevant subdivisions of the Staff, in the aim of organizing  and coordinating the work of the sittings of the National Assembly combined with the Relations and Communication Department of the National Assembly with the staff of the Government, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the President of the Republic of Armenia and with other state authorities of the Republic of Armenia;

7) shall implement other functions established by law.

FUNCTIONS OF THE SESSION SUPPORT DIVISION

2. The session support division, for the implementation of the tasks assigned to it within the scope of its powers, shall perform the following functions:

1) shall provide organizational-technical services for the sessions and sittings of the National Assembly;

2) shall transfer to the bodies and structural subdivisions of the Staff of the National Assembly the drafts of the laws of the Republic of Armenia and draft resolutions, addresses and statements of the National Assembly that have been put into circulation;

3) within the time limits established by the schedule for preliminary discussions of the draft state budget, shall receive and submit to the Government written proposals of Deputies and factions based on the results of preliminary discussions;

4) shall cooperate with the standing committees of the National Assembly, factions of the National Assembly and the relevant structural subdivisions of the Staff of the Prime Minister in the aim of organizing the legislative process and the debate of the issues at a sitting of the National Assembly and coordinating those activities;

5) shall provide the officer presiding over the sitting of the National Assembly with the necessary materials for presenting agendas and agenda issues, and for conducting the sittings; shall assist the officer presiding over the sitting; shall provide him with advice regarding the conduct of sittings and the legislative process;

6) shall provide services for the sittings of the National Assembly, if necessary, for the parliamentary hearings and for the invited sittings convened for preliminary discussion of the draft state budget; shall provide the organization of the debate of the agenda issues; shall provide multiply copies of the draft issues submitted for a debate, the documents presented attached to them, as defined by the Work Procedure of the National Assembly;

7) shall provide unfailing work of the electronic system of the sitting hall; shall implement the registration of voting, recording for the issues or exchange of opinions of the MPs; shall demonstrate the allotted time on the illuminated display; shall enter the information of the sitting hall’s data bank and periodically update the relevant data of the Deputies of the National Assembly;

8) shall maintain the electronic versions for roll-call voting, the record of voting organized by the Counting Commission;

9) shall keep the vote submitted by a Deputy who has left on a business trip (signed, in a closed envelope) and before the vote of a relevant issue shall present it to the Chairperson of the National Assembly, and if the voting system is inactive, shall present it to the Chair of the Counting Commission, if necessary, shall make corresponding changes in the voting results;

10) during a sitting of the National Assembly, in case of the presence of a corresponding resolution on defining the duration of a debate of an issue, shall observe the maintenance of the deadlines established by the resolution;

11) shall control and provide the maintenance of the  procedure for the presence and participation of the Staff servants and the accredited journalists in the sitting hall;

12) shall record the written questions of the MPs addressed to the Government, the interpellations of the factions, as well as the answers to the interpellations and the registration of other official letters and, according to whom these belong, shall implement the distribution of them in compliance with the established procedure;

13) within a week after the end of each calendar half-year, shall form and submit to the Chairperson of the National Assembly a certificate related to the voting, as well as to the Deputies absent from the voting, attaching to it  the grounds for recognizing the absences as valid;

14) during the first week of each month, as well as within a week after the end of each calendar half-year, shall forward relevant certificates to the official email addresses of Deputies and factions on the absence of Deputies for voting for the previous month and the previous calendar half-year;

15) shall provide multiply copies of the materials submitted by committees and sub-divisions of the National Assembly in accordance with a relevant application;

16) shall perform other functions established by law.

FUNCTIONS OF THE PROTOCOL DIVISION

3. The Protocol Division, for the implementation of the tasks assigned to it within the scope of its powers, shall perform the following functions:

1) For documents submitted to the National Assembly, including the draft Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, laws of the Republic of Armenia and the draft resolutions, addresses and statements of the National Assembly, as well as documents submitted for the signature by the Chairperson of the National Assembly the legal acts and other documents, shall provide compliance with the Armenian language rules, their stylistic and terminological unity, in the prescribed procedure and terms; shall perform the preparation of legal acts and other documents (with the exception of secret) submitted for the signature of the Chairperson of the National Assembly, obtaining the necessary opinions and notes, as well as their record and preparation for dispatch;

2) shall implement the translation into Russian the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, laws and resolutions of the Republic of Armenia and, according to the belonging, shall prepare their dispatch;

3) shall submit for approval and, according to belonging, shall prepare for dispatch the   laws, resolutions, statements and addresses adopted by the National Assembly;

4) shall check the incorporation of the amended draft legal acts;

5) shall form protocols on the termination of powers of a Deputy of the National Assembly;

6) shall prepare bulletins for voting and texts with concise protocols for secret ballot;

7) shall manage the registration books of adopted laws, resolutions, addresses and statements;

8) shall maintain the originals of resolutions, addresses and statements of the National Assembly, resolutions, decrees of the Chairperson of the National Assembly and shall manage their record;

9) shall perform other functions established by law.

FUNCTIONS OF THE SHORTHAND DIVISION

4. The shorthand division, for the implementation of the tasks assigned to it within the scope of its powers, shall perform the following functions:

1) shall perform the  shorthand recording of public sittings of the National Assembly, and in individual cases also the  shorthand recording of the parliamentary hearings;

2) shall display the stenographs on the official website of the National Assembly;

3) shall perform other functions established by law.
 

FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICE DIVISION FOR THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY  
5. The Service Division for the Official Web Site of the National Assembly, for the implementation of the tasks assigned to it within the scope of its powers, shall perform the following functions:

1) shall provide the management of the Official Web Site of the National Assembly (www.parliament.am, Internet and intranet pages) (in 4 languages: Armenian, Russian, English, French);

2) shall promulgate and periodically update the information on the structure, composition and activity of the National Assembly  and information regarding the structure of the Staff on the web page;

3) shall manage the electronic archive of issues put into circulation in the National Assembly;

4) by means of an automated system, shall manage a register of issues put into circulation in the National Assembly, shall register the draft laws and resolutions, statements and addresses of the National
Assembly put into circulation in the National  Assembly, as well as other issues submitted for debate by the National Assembly;

5) shall promulgate on the website of the National Assembly the texts, put into official circulation the draft amendments to the Constitution, the law or the package of draft laws, their supplemented versions and the documents presented attached to them, drafts adopted in the first reading, as well as draft resolutions, statements and addresses of the National Assembly, reports, communications, accounts of state bodies and the texts of other issues submitted for a debate to the National Assembly;

6) shall present the progress of the debate of legislative initiatives (the history of the debate of the draft) and shall display them on the website of the National Assembly;

7) shall implement the promulgation on the web page of the National Assembly the electronic versions of the written proposals of the Government put into circulation, as well as proposals adopted by the first reading draft laws;

8) through the automated programming system for forming agendas of sessions and sittings, shall provide the standing committees of the National Assembly with preliminary versions of draft agendas for sessions, making supplements to them, draft agendas for the regular sittings of the National Assembly and shall publish them in the Internet section of the website of the National Assembly;

9) shall assist the standing committees of the National Assembly in the process of using the automated programming system in forming agendas and records of sittings of committees, in forming their agendas, protocols and placing them on the website of the National Assembly;

10) in accordance with the procedure established by the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly,” shall develop intermediate versions of draft agendas for sessions, making supplements to them, as well as agendas for regular sittings of the National Assembly on the basis of minutes of sittings of head committees, proposals of the Government, fractions, shall submit them to the Chairperson of the National Assembly and place them in the Internet section of the website of the National Assembly;
 
11) shall publish on the website of the National Assembly the final versions of draft agendas for sessions, making supplements to them, as well as draft agendas for regular sittings of the National Assembly based on the minutes of the sitting of the Council of the National Assembly;

12) shall publish on the web page and in the sitting hall of the National Assembly the approved agendas of sessions and sittings of the National Assembly (regular, extraordinary, special) and the texts of agenda issues;

13) following the sittings of the National Assembly, shall form and publish the minutes of the sittings on the web page, shall publish the results of participation and personal voting of Deputies, as well as the voting protocols organized by the Counting Commission;

14) shall publish on the website of the National Assembly the texts of the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, laws, resolutions, statements and addresses of the National Assembly, as well as resolutions and orders of the Chairperson of the National Assembly, and a schedule of regular sittings of the National Assembly;

15) shall publish a live broadcast of the sittings of the National Assembly and provide the archiving of video and audio recordings on the website of the National Assembly;

16) shall publish a live broadcast of the sittings of the committees of the National Assembly on the web pages of the committees;

17) shall publish on the website of the National Assembly the answers to the written questions of the Deputies, also the answers to the interpellation of the factions addressed to the members of the Government;

18) shall publish on the website of the National Assembly the composition of the delegations of the National Assembly in international parliamentary organizations, deputy groups and amendments made to them;

19) shall provide training for the relevant specialists of the committees, Budget Office and sub-divisions of the Staff of the National Assembly in the purpose to placing their own materials in relevant sections of the website, as well as shall monitor the process of updating those pages;

20) shall perform other functions established by law.