On 19 September, the Government adopted a resolution on making Amendments and Supplements in the 2019 State Budget and the Government of the Republic of Armenia Decision N 1515-N of 27 December for Organizing Purchasing Procedures and the Government of the Republic of Armenia Amending Decision N 980-N of 1 August 2019 .
It referred to the program of building a Vehicle Customs Clearance for the implementation of the customs clearance functions in Gyumri.
SRC Chairman Davit Ananyan noted that this is the third stage project to be submitted to the Government for discussion. The project provides for the allocation of 970 million 400 thousand drams. The money is intended for the reconstruction work, the acquisition of technical and authoritative supervision services and will be carried out through a one-person purchase procedure.
In response to Prime Minister Pashinyan’s question whether there is any problem with the deadline set for Gyumri in October, David Ananyan said that the deadlines will be met. “Yes, we are accommodating, Mr. Prime Minister, even we may go through a 24-hour work period, but the deadline of October 11 remains the same in terms of launch, and it may actually be changed related with the fact whether or not you are in Armenia to be present at the opening ceremony, but it will actually operate on the 11th of October,” the SRC Chairman noted.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said: “With this mechanism this is our third decision that we are making; and taking into consideration that the construction of the Gyumri customs house is taking place in an emergency regime. For this reason and it is important that it takes place within these deadlines, that it will also work on the active phase of importing cars. I hope everything goes well.”
Just a month after the 19 September meeting, on 19 October, Prime Minister Pashinyan posted on Facebook that on 9, April as a result of a visit to the SRC structures, SRC Chairman David Ananyan instructed to take measures to move the car from Yerevan to Gyumri.
“Today I have visited Gyumri to get acquainted with the process of construction of foreign economic zone, including the construction of the Vehicle Customs Clearance House,” he noted.
https://www.facebook.com/nikol.pashinyan/videos/444491809527651/
It should be noted that on 19 October, when the Prime Minister got acquainted with the construction work, it had been eight days after the deadline and in fact, the Prime Minister had to visit Gyumri, not to get acquainted with the construction work , but to participate in the opening ceremony of the customs house.
The government press release on the visit to Gyumri states : “It has been reported that a section of the center which will focus on the functions of the automobile business will be put into operation in early November 2019.“
Let us also look at previous decisions adopted by the Government.
On 1 August, the Government made a decision to amend the RA Law on State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2019, increasing the revenues and expenses allocated to the State Revenue Committee by AMD 181 million.
SRC Chairman Davit Ananyan also noted that the draft decision was elaborated in the framework of instructions by the Prime Minister of Armenia during his visit to Noragavit Vehicle Customs Clearance House in April 2019.
“Our current capabilities, both infrastructure and human, will not enable to handle the unprecedented expected volumes and this is why we have launched this project very quickly and urgently, at the Prime Minister’s instruction,” the SRC Chairman said.
According to him, 41 million drams of the 181 million drams, are intended for one-person purchase through project – estimation, geological-exploration and land-based survey services, and 140 million drams for administrative equipment and other general services.
The center will be allocated on 21.5 hectares owned by the Ministry of Defense in Gyumri, 4.5 hectares of which will be used for the vehicles’ customs clearance processes.
It is also noted that the initial total cost of setting up an external service center and related infrastructure in Gyumri is 2.2 billion drams.
David Ananyan also added that an unprecedented volume of car imports is expected from third countries that are not EEU member states and that is why this project was undertaken in an urgent and rapid manner (68 thousand cars were imported in the period of 1 January to 31 July this year, and 67,000 cars were imported during the last year.
On 8 August, according to Government Decree N 1020-N, the budget was redistributed again, and the procurement procedures were organized.
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Additional 966 million 480 thousand AMD was allocated to the State Revenue Committee. According to the draft decision, these funds would be used for the preparation of project estimate documents, which was adopted at the 1 August session of the RA Government.
“The acquisitions of the procurement items listed in Annex 8 of the Government Decision will be made by one person and an invitation to participate in the procurement process will be sent to “MOSCOW AREA” Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC), and to the “Shin Industria GTC” LLC to conduct technical control services over the construction work,” SRC Chairman David Ananyan said during the session.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked a question to the SRC Chairman: “Mr. Ananyan, what shall we do ensure the correct price and spending the right amount of money for the implementation of this project if we purchase it from one person?” In response, David Ananyan noted that the design-estimate work is carried out by the designers and it is the designer and not the constructer who determines the price based on the market. Notably the designer was select at the previous meeting of the government through selecting another person for implementing purchase. “According to the results of the examination, new financing will be approved,” David Ananyan noted.
The Prime Minister has asked to be very careful not to spoil the process.
In total, the State Revenue Committee has already been provided about 2 billion 117 million 880 thousand drams.
It should also be noted that the State Revenue Committee has submitted to the public discussion the draft decision of the Government on the address of the Vehicle Customs Clearance House. It will be located at 2/14 Tbilisyan Highway, Northern Customs-Department of Shirak Marz.
As we can see in the above-mentioned decisions and in the Prime Minister-SRC Chairman Dialogues, the construction and operation of the Gyumri Vehicle Customs Clearance House was an urgent task, which proves that the Prime Minister’s instruction was not fulfilled.
And a next question issues form this:: If it was not so urgent and the pre-planned deadlines were violated, why wasn’t a tender announced and why the transactions were carried out under a one-person purchase agreement?
Alisa Chilingaryan
