On February 8, the members of the Executive Body approved the draft decision, which was related to the amendments and additions to the Government Decree No. 526-N of 4 May, 2017.

The draft decision was submitted by Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan. This decision regulates the problem that arose during the process of organizing the public procurement, when it was required to make a bid in the form of unilateral tender security in case of realization of procurement of up to 70 million AMD. The Armenian Lawyers’ Association had raised this issue and offered to make a change.

“This issue also stems from your assignment. Last year, when we introduced the new system of procurement, we were instructed to constantly keep the system at our point of view so as to give quick solutions in the event of any problems, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations. I have to report that we are working very actively with the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International NGOs. And the regulations, which are provided in the draft, also concern the issues raised by them,” the minister said.

Mr. Aramyan noted that the necessity to make changes is stipulated by the fact that when realizing procurement of up to 70 million AMD, it was required to provide one-sided tender security form, which is formal and the participants applications are rejected due to not essential deficiencies, thus reducing state procurement participation rate.

“NGOs also state that if a participant does not participate in the procurement properly, and we immediately put them in the black list, this form of punishment does not serve its purpose; that is why we remove it,” Mr. Aramyan said.