Representatives of the “Armenian Lawyers Association” non-governmental organisation, members of the State and Legal Committee of the Public Council Mt. Marat Atovmyan and Mr.Artyom Mesropyan participated in the discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2020-2022 and the Applications for Budget Financing for 2020. The meeting was held in the scope of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project
Mr. Vardan Movsisyan Deputy Chief of Police, Mr. Ara Aslikyan Head of Finance and Budget Department, Mr. Vardan Petrosyan Deputy Head of the same department and other members of the Finance and Budget Department participated in the discussion.
During the discussion, Deputy Chief of Police Vardan Movsisyan presented the main directions of the implemented reforms in the police recently and those in process of implementation.
Mr. Artyom Mesropyan lawyer expert of the ALA mentioned: “For the first time, with our consistent efforts, we have initiated this initiative with the aim of discussing the public sector budget requests with vast layers of the society. Our organisation attaches importance to the development of constructive dialogue with state bodies and review of budget bids based on the suggestions made. Taking into account that such a format will be used for the first time and is a pilot format, it is expected that, in the event of a public response, the government will take steps to establish and re-establish legal basis for this process.”
Mr. Ara Aslikyan Head of the Financial and Budget Department of the Police, presented in detail the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2020-2022 of the Police and the main measures of budget financing applications, their performance indicators, as well as the number of police, the amount of maintenance costs and efficiency that are typically assessed on the basis of comparisons with internationally accepted definitions (100,000 residents and/or one square kilometre (1 sq/km), the number of police officers per area, the cost per one police officer, police expenditure – gross domestic product (GDP) ratio and other indicators). The proposed allocations have the following structure:
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- Salary and equal payments, 47.9 billion AMD, 70.5% of total,
- Benefits, taxes, mandatory payments, grants, business trips and special expenses – $ 1.6 billion AMD, 2.4 percent of total
- Expenses for purchasing goods and services amounted to 16.9 billion AMD (24.9%), of which capital expenditures – 1.6 billion. AMD or 2.4% of the total.
- Educational expenses of the educational complex – 1.5 billion AMD, 2.2% of the total.
Further, Artyom Mesropyan and Marat Atovmyan asked questions and discussed the 6 main expenditure programs of budget bid.
At the end, the parties noted that the ongoing discussions will contribute to the clarify cation and improvement of the quantitative, qualitative and timely indicators developed and presented for individual events, as well as the opportunity to substantially improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Police programs and on the other hand, public oversight over police activities.
