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On July 20 at the press conference Gagik Minasyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, and Artsvik Minasyan, Deputy Chairman of the Committee, presented the joint work implemented by the Committee and the German GTZ organization. Within the framework of that cooperation there have been visits to different Lands of Germany: Hessen, Berlin, Bavaria, for the study of the experience of the project budgeting contribution and making changes in the budgeting policy in Armenia. Irina Kausch, GTZ representative, also attended the press conference.

Gagik Minasyan highlighted the cooperation with the GTZ with its expediency and obviousness of the results. The last project, which has been implemented with the GTZ, has been within the framework of the Memorandum signed between the National Assembly and the GTZ, which designed two-year project. The project was aimed at improving the knowledge of the NA staff and the members of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs in the sphere of the project budgeting. Within the framework of the project the Committee has received new technology, consultative works has been carried out, and experts have visited Armenia. It was noted that the GTZ cooperated with the NA Standing Committee, Control Chamber and the RA Ministry of Finance, as the three structures were connected with the budgeting process. He said that, as a result of consultation, a document had been created, which had been submitted to the Ministry of Finance. The project budgeting formats of Hessen Land and Armenia has been studied in the document. It was proposed in the further phases of the Armenian format to apply components, which had not been applied before and this reached a positive answer. The Committee Chairman highlighted the circumstance that by the project a great attention had been drawn to the capacity building of the staff: the NA staff members also had been in Hessen Land, got acquainted with the functions of the staff of the respective committee.

Artsvik Minasyan noted that the meaning of the project budgeting improvement was to pursue effective policy, so that the society and the parliament could assess the policy of the acting Government through the results. “When we compare the principles of forming the two budgets, then, conventionally said, it is the following: the classical budgeting system says how much money the Government needs, the project budgeting says what it gives to the society and for what,” Mr. Minasyan recorded.

Тhe GTZ representative Irina Kausch noted that the GTZ had been actively functioning in Armenia for already 20 years, also cooperating with NGOs. Within the framework of this project cooperation in the legislative field is in place, and training programmes are being implemented.