Chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a regular Cabinet meeting took place today.

The Government adopted a decision which purposes to allocate 3 billion 151 million AMD from the state budget 2024 to the regional administrations in order to co-finance 43 subsidy programs of 34 communities. As Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan noted, 2 of the projects started in 2021, 10 in 2022, and 31 in 2023. "These projects were actually largely completed in 2023, although it is for some paperwork that we have made the payment now. This is in the 2023 portion. In 2023, we co-financed a record high amount of 30 billion 300 million, and we are financing 3 billion 151 million today," said the minister.

Nikol Pashinyan listed the subsidy programs financed by the decision and once again emphasized the need to carry out the works with quality and to exercise proper control over them.

At today's Cabinet meeting, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the process of organizing purchases and noted that there is a lot of talk about the improvement of procurement legislation, but the improvement is not so visible. The Prime Minister proposed to create an institutional mechanism for improvement of purchases, which will function independently of the instructions. Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan informed that the process of preparation of a new procurement law has been initiated since the beginning of 2024. fundamental steps will be implemented, which will be regularly reported to the Prime Minister.

During the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister also referred to Armenia's step back in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International organization last year and noted that the regress has been stopped and a little progress has been made. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the following paragraph of the report: "Although Armenia, like many other countries in the region, faces security threats, it has sufficient potential to overcome these challenges and implement effective policies to make corruption risks manageable." The Prime Minister noted that although Armenia has faced security challenges, during the very specific crisis situations, an agreement was reached at both public and working levels that the right work and the right response is to not deviate from the issues on the agenda and to continue working in that direction. "Today, many countries and international organizations are recording extraordinary manifestations of our resilience, and this is only due to the fact that even in 2020, even in 2021, in 2022, in 2023, our reform agenda did not stop for a single minute. And it is thanks to the implemented reforms that we have raised the level of our resistance, and we should go this way," the Head of the Government emphasized.

The Government set a task to create an interdepartmental commission for the prevention of circulation and illegal circulation of narcotics and psychotropic (psychoactive) substances in the Republic of Armenia, the commission's work order and main tasks. It will contribute to the strengthening of control in this area, increasing the effectiveness of the fight against illegal drug trafficking, coordinating the activities carried out by state authorized bodies in the field of prevention, ensuring daily cooperation between the relevant bodies, and also supporting the fulfillment of Armenia’s international obligations in the fight against drug trafficking and illegal trafficking.

The Government nominated Garegin Baghramyan for the position of chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission.