On January 31, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired the discussion of the activity report 2023 of the State Supervision Service.

Romanos Petrosyan, the head of the State Supervision Service, and his deputies reported on the activities carried out during the reporting period.

In particular, summary information was presented on the results of 40 studies (39 in 2022) and 216 monitorings (201 in 2022) carried out in 2023 in the state legal sphere, economy, territorial administration and infrastructure, social sphere, procurement processes, implementation of inspections, risk assessment and analysis, as well as legal assurance and legality fields.

In this context, a separate reference was made to the studies and a number of monitorings carried out in state departments and structures with state share.

It was noted that 90 criminal proceedings were initiated in 2023 (77 in 2022) by the Service. It was also reported that about 1.1 billion AMD (in 2022: about 135 million AMD) were recovered for the violations/inconsistencies recorded.

In this context, reference was made to the time spent by the state system for recovering funds and the money spent for that purpose. Prime Minister Pashinyan noted, "Here there is the problem of formulating the task. our initial task was to recover 1000 AMD, or our task was, for example, to carry out supervision, and during that time 1000 or 400 AMD was recovered. Theoretically, in my understanding, there may be a case that restoring 1000 AMD is so fundamental that one can spend 50,000 AMD or even 1 million AMD for that goal, because it depends on the context. For example, the same question arises in connection with the functions of the SRC. I say, listen, dear colleagues, there are 3000 POS terminals in the country with 0 transactions. What is the response of the SRC? They says, those 3000 POS terminals are in the villages, well, even if it worked, how much turnover would there be? If there was a turnover of 100 million AMD, 6 million AMD of tax would be generated from the turnover of 100 million AMD. I say no, this is not the case, because it is firstly a human right that we have to ensure, a pensioner who should be able to do cashless trade and secondly, it is a matter of law enforcement.

We need to move from quantitative indicators to qualitative indicators and highlight the problems and propose solutions, or it is not necessary for the State Supervision Service to have the solutions to all the issues, it can say that this problem exists, a policy-making body or an implementer, see how you solve it, but this problem exists. That way of working, in my opinion, is more correct than just staying in the logic of numbers."

Prime Minister Pashinyan referred to the supervision over the implemented programs and noted. "The next problem is again about more qualitative control in relation to roads, because now we are building roads, 500 km of road has been built. OK, we built it, but after 3 years, does the condition of that road meet our quality standard or not? I instruct that the State Supervision Service conducts a study on this specific topic, and not only on a documentary basis, but to go, as is the established procedure, to take the extract. Otherwise, we built the road, but let's say it starts to deteriorate very quickly and then, again, we don't have an answer, we don't know what the reason is, because this year the weather was not good, there was an increase in cargo transportation, there were an increase in heavy trucks, in which there must be something legitimate. There is also a question of standard. By the way, let me say that with the program of modernization of the economy, by which we are promoting the import of equipment, now there are so many self-propelled ordinary cars that have never been in Armenia, but here too we need to understand whether we have adjusted the standards of our roads for this logic or not. And here I expect to have answers."

It was reported that 638 petitions were received from citizens in 2023 (589 in 2022), recording that about 47% of the 638 petitions were received from legal entities, about 46% from citizens, and about 7% from lawyers.

It was also noted that during 2023, a number of violations/inconsistencies were recorded by the Service in state departments in connection with applications and complaints by citizens to these bodies, and the "Hotline" service and the function of reception of citizens.

The main directions of the Service's involvement in Armenia’s strategic and international anti-corruption programs were also presented, highlighting the control over the provision of the 2019-2022 action plan for the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy of the Republic of Armenia. In the framework of the above, it was also documented that from December 2023, the Service is a partner structure of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

It was reported that the need to make changes in the law "On the State Supervision Service" is due to the implementation of the Prime Minister's instruction to entrust the Service with the function of financial and budgetary supervision over the implementation of the state budget, as well as the need to solve the systemic problems that have emerged during the 6 years of operation.