From 2008 on, audit on legitimacy and efficiency of construction activities realized at the expense the state budget means are carried out by the CoC
The CoC recorded:
– payments made for outstanding/unfulfilled works
– low-quality works
– artificial price increase
– various irregularities in design and construction works
– inadequate technical control and construction/design supervision carried out with the breach of regulations.
In the result of the audit, number of entities committing violations, made substantial paybacks to the state budget; in addition, the works of poor quality were rectified by latter.
In the reporting year, the CoC has proceeded with its audit activities reporting about number of problems and shortcomings. Namely in the school building project.
From 2006 on the RA Ministry of Urban Development has launched activities on construction, renovation and reconstruction of educational entities funded through the state budget, which are still in progress.
The total value of contracts signed for construction of 74 entities is 33,031,584.0 thousand AMD.
17,032,943,546.0 thousand AMD was spent in the period of 2006-2012; however, the construction of none of the mentioned objects is accomplished.
5,735,863.6 thousand AMD was spent in 2013
According to the contracts, additional 11,469,534.0 thousand AMD will be required for finalization of construction of the mentioned 74 objects.
In addition to the above-mentioned amount, substantial financial resources may be spent on improvement of technical state/operating conditions of the redesigned 26 objects.
In the reporting year, the Control Chamber has carried out spot checks in 11 educational institutions, the total contract value making up 878,400 thousand AMD. In the scope of the mentioned audits, works of a total value of 407,900.0 thousand AMD have undergone inspection measurement.
Low quality works of 4,982 thousand AMD have been reported, upward distortion of volumehas not been revealed. It is necessary to mention that upward distortion of volume has not been detected in the construction works audited in the regional (marz) administrations and Armenian Social Investment Fund (ASIF), whereas the mentioned indicator in the previous year has always been high. This is obviously a positive change.
The above presented analysis shows that the school building programme of the RA Government has not been accomplished over the years. Moreover, no deadlines are set for accomplishment of activities stipulated by the contract. The method of school building project implementation raises doubts about the efficiency of state budget expenses.
The CoC analysis shows that there are still significant corruption risks especially reverberated and concentrated at planning and design estimation stages as well as in inadequate and unsustainable systems of construction supervision.
