The executive body proposes an addendum to the Law on Structure and Activities of Government. The RA Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyants presented the main regulations at the NA sitting on September 12.
The current law authorizes the Ministries to develop and implement the Government’s policy. According to the Deputy Minister, it also implies a monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation, the results of which are necessary for highlighting the current problems and improving the policy. It was noted that the need to consolidate the function of anti-corruption monitoring and evaluation by the legislative act as a problem and a priority for reform was recorded within the framework of the RA international obligations, in particular, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As the Ministry empowered to develop and implement the Government policy in the anti-corruption sphere, it is carried out by the RA Ministry of Justice, but since it is not recorded by the document, it was considered as a justification for not fulfilling the international obligation.
“Taking into account the abovementioned, it is necessary to clearly fix such powers by law in order to exclude misunderstandings and to ensure the existence of a clear legal basis to perform the mentioned functions,” the Deputy Mister said.
It will also be defined that the Government’s policy also implies a monitoring and evaluation of the Government's policy in the relevant sphere by the Ministries.
The NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan raised the problem of setting unlogic standards in case of some programs. “We should be careful during the budget discussions and convince our colleagues in the Government in a constructive field to set the right standards,” the NA Vice President said.
Agreeing with the NA Vice President, Yeranuhi Tumanyants underlined that the executive body always tries to improve the standards of the programs, so that there will be no problem with evaluation in the future.
The NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs gave a positive conclusion regarding the issue. The Committee member Alkhas Ghazaryan emphasized that it is proposed to fix legal basis of the functions related to monitoring and evaluation by law.