At June 23 joint sitting of the NA Standing Committees on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs and on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport, the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport debated the current conclusion of the Audit Chamber regarding the results of the audit of the annual state budget 2022 performance.
The Committee Chairs Gevorg Papoyan and Sisak Gabrielyan moderated the sitting.
The member of the Auditor Chamber Gagik Barseghyan noted in his speech that 87.807.122.0 thousand AMD was allocated in the annual budget for the implementation of 23 budget programmes to the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the adjusted plan for the financial period was 80.830.301.0 thousand AMD, the actual funding was 77.768.554.7 thousand AMD, the performance was about 96%.
According to him, the Audit Chamber recorded inconsistencies and distortions in 2022 as a result of the audit carried out in the Ministry.
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Inconsistency with the requirements of the RA Government’s 2016 decision on approving the procedure for financing the activities of regional pedagogical and psychological support centres was recorded.
In 2022, the Ministry allocated 20.712.6 thousand AMD to 4 educational institutions.
Inconsistency was recorded between the signed subsidy contracts and the requirements of the 2003 RA Government decision on approving the procedure for allocating subsidies and grants to legal entities from the RA state budget.
As a result, additional payment of 162.276.9 thousand AMD was paid, which was not classified and not reflected in the Article 4112 Rewards, Monetary Incentives and Special Payments-, which in turn led to the distortion of the report.
It was mentioned that the Ministry issued an explanation regarding some of the inconsistencies, and the other part was taken into consideration.
Different opinions and clarifications were voiced in relation to calculating salaries with a factor of 1.75.
The Chairman of the Audit Chamber Atom Janjughazyan stated that the Chamber takes the Government’s decision as the basis for the audit. He proposed to solve the problem by order of the Minister. The formula for calculating the salary is defined by the decision of the Government. According to him, two of the three inconsistencies were recognized as distortions. The Chairman of the Audit Chamber, answering the question of the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Sisak Gabrielyan, clarified what the notions of inconsistency and distortion mean.
According to the RA Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan, the reason for the inconsistency is that salaries were calculated according to another provision.
The RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan informed that the relevant decision has already been amended and it has been put into circulation. According to her, in the near future, the new digitized system of public education financing will start functioning, which will make it possible to avoid such inconsistencies. A complete formula for unified financing will also be defined. According to the Minister, the new information system will start working soon.
Zhanna Andreasyan also presented clarifications regarding the many problems of public education and school financing, underscoring the necessity to provide solutions to them through legislation. Speaking about the reforms, she stated that the staff list of schools has been completely regulated. Some positions were left out and new ones were added. The positions of e-teaching and information systems specialist and psychologist were included. They will be mandatory in all schools from September.
Zhanna Andreasyan emphasized the importance of cooperation with the National Assembly and the Audit Chamber.
The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan highlighted the fact that the Audit Chamber is, in fact, gradually transitioning from auditing to efficiency assessment. The importance of increasing the efficiency of activities in general was underlined.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
