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The Chairman of the RA Audit Chamber Atom Janjughazyan presented the annual report of the Audit Chamber for 2022 at the regular sitting of the National Assembly on May 23.

According to him, in 2022, the Audit Chamber ensured the implementation of its activity, which was in line with the advantage of the function of the external state audit, which is to promote the improvement of the management of public property.

He informed that during the previous year, 72 reports were carried out in 18 state bodies, which covered about 91.1 % of the expenditure part of the state budget.

54 audits were carried out in three parts of the action plan of the Audit Chamber: in the first part, 40 audits were carried out in 10 state bodies.

In the second part of the 2022 programme, 11 audits were carried out.

The Chairman of the Audit Chamber informed that 3 measures provided by the international agreements were implemented in the third part of the activity programme.

The key rapporteur informed that the 40 audits included in the first part were of financial and compliance character.

2 audits out them included in part two, were financial and compliance audits, 3 were compliance, and 5 were performance audits.

The third part was the predetermined measures of the international treaties, the logic of which was derived from those contracts.

Atom Janjughazyan noted that in 2022, the Audit Chamber gave 4 positive and 1 incomplete conclusions.

The Chairman of the Audit Chamber mentioned that the proposals made by the audits were aimed at improving the management of public finances and public property. He informed that there were 66 proposals.

The Audit Chamber organized its activities through 23 sittings: 12 regular and 11 extraordinary. 269 decisions were adopted during the sittings.

Atom Janjughazyan informed that in 2022, the Audit Chamber designed a package of legislative drafts aimed at improving the legal framework and put it into circulation.

Touching upon the cooperation with law enforcement agencies, Atom Janjughazyan stated that in the financial year, criminal proceedings were initiated by the law enforcement agencies in 6 separate directions based on audit materials. He informed that according to the priorities, various debates were organized with the standing committees in joint sittings, where the results of the audits were introduced in detail.

The Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan highly valued the work of the Audit Chamber in his speech and noted that an effective format of cooperation between the National Assembly and the Audit Chamber has been found, the beneficiary of which is the citizen of the Republic of Armenia. According to the deputy, this cooperation is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the state administration system. Gevorg Papoyan stated that it refers, in particular, to the joint sittings of two or more committees initiated by the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, during which the conclusions regarding the sector problems recorded by the Audit Chamber are debated. The Chair of the Committee informed that the opposition deputies also take part in the debates. “Through these debates, using the Constitutional toolkit, we also exercise our parliamentary control over the activities of the Government, and in this context the conclusions of the Audit Chamber are very important,” Gevorg Papoyan said.

The Chair of the Committee mentioned that the National Assembly and the committees do not act as judges: it is a healthy debate during which the deputies, ministries and executive representatives present their observations. According to the Chair of the Committee, in the end, the partners of the Government often state that they undertake to make amendments regarding the issues raised during the debates. Gevorg Papoyan drew attention of the attendees to the fact that currently, as a result of the amendment of the RA Constitution and a number of laws, the Audit Chamber does not perform an oversight, but rather a helping and supporting function. He underscored the importance of the proposals presented by the Audit Chamber and urged his colleagues of the Government to pay attention to them. Gevorg Papoyan also urged the Audit Chamber to make the content of the conclusions more in-depth.