On 19 June, public discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2020-2022, including the Applications for Budget Financing for 2020 of the Ministry of Healthcare was held at the Ministry.
Ms Tsaghik Vardanyan, Head of the State Health Agency of the Ministry of Healthcare of Armenia, Mr. Garush Ayvazyan, Deputy Head of the same department, advisor Mr. Karlen Antonyan, employees of the RA Ministry of Health and state healthcare staff Ms Esma Dallakyan and Ms Gayane Sahakyan were present at the meeting. Mr. Movses Aristakesyan, President of the “Economic Rights Center” NGO, Member of the Governing Board of the CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia, Mr. Gevorg Grigoryan, Chairman of the Board “Armenian National Health Council” Coalition as well as members of the coalition attended the meeting in the framework of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project.
As a result of the public discussion, deviations and omissions from methodological guidelines for filling in the application have been raised and appropriate methodological assistance was provided for their elimination.
There were concerns that it is possible and should further be developed and approved additional performance and timelines indicators.
However, the most important issue is their accurate econometric characterization and especially the collection of reliable and representative information about them. Moreover, it was mentioned that this issue concerns not only the Ministry of Healthcare but also the entire state system, as the proper, objective, and measurable performance indicators for their activities and their implementation of budget programs are very important in terms of oversight and public awareness. In this regard, the Economic Law Center NGO’s recommendation was considered “reasonable” to reserve the right to “Monitor and Control over Performance of MTEF and Budget Programs to CSOs”. It was mentioned that the program was submitted to the RA NA leadership, as well as to the RA Government and the RA Ministry of Finance, as well as to all the representatives of the donor community. However, there is no proper reflection to it today. The main problem is lack of funding.
It was mutually indicated that the donor community, especially the EU, had enough resources to finance this problem, especially since the establishment of a constructive dialogue government-civil society in Armenia entails their mandate as well as their objectives and priorities. In this connection, initiative from Armenian side is also very important.
