What does the procurement planning have to do with reality? Nothing

Every year, when planning the budget for the coming year, government agencies also draw up the procurement plan for that year, which specifies what goods and services will be procured during the year and how much it will cost the taxpayers.

In reality, this planning is merely a formality, because the real picture is not only not close to the number and volume of planned procurement, but also differs greatly from the list in the procurement plan.

Because the year 2023 is not over yet, we have tried to compare the plan for procurement to be made by the National Assembly in 2022 and the actual procurement.

According to the Government decision on measures to ensure the implementation of the 2022 budget, 289 procurements were approved by the 2022 procurement plan of the National Assembly, with a total of AMD 850.3 million envisaged for them.

However, the National Assembly made only 106 procurements during the year, spending AMD 346 million.

It can be seen from the graph that the National Assembly not only failed to make a significant part of the budgeted expenses, but also made many procurements with procedures not provided for in the budget. For example, 11 procurements worth AMD 68.5 million were made through “Urgently from one person” or “Expenditure not considered a procurement” procedures.

By the way, this picture can be observed in all state agencies. Thus, we can state that the budgeted procurement plan is based not on the need and calculations, but inertia, while the necessary procurement was made during the course of the year.

Sevada Ghazaryan