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On June 27 in the National Assembly on the initiative of the Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs of the RA National Assembly an international seminar on the theme “The Procurements in the Defense Sector” was held, where NA deputies, international experts, representatives of state bodies, police and NGOs were taking part.

The Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs Koryun Nahapetyan had an opening word. He has informed the attendees that a seminar on this theme is held for the first time, which witnesses of the need of making the procurement in the defense sector more and more transparent. By the Committee Chairman’s assessment, the aim of the seminar is to discuss the existing challenges in the procurement process of the defense sector, the ways of providing the efficiency of procurements and the role of competent bodies in that process and the functions of the parliamentary oversight. According to Koryun Nahapetyan, such events foster the development of the committee capabilities, and create good opportunity to get acquainted with the experience of different countries in this sphere.

The Deputy Director DCAF Philipp Fluri has noted that their continuous cooperation with the NA Standing Committee goes on rather effectively and has expressed hope that the theme of the seminar, being remarkable for the state bodies and society, at the same time will be instructive for the participants, as in this sphere the international highly qualified experts will present their achievements and international experience. He recorded with satisfaction that the RA Ministry of Defense as a concerned party, actively takes part in the discussions.

The former Senator of the Netherlands, the former Minister of Defense, the former Secretary General of the Western European Union Wim Van Eekelen touched upon the role of the parliament in the oversight of the procurements in the defense sector. To his assessment, as the procurement of the defense sector is one clients’ market, i.e. the government solely makes a decision the kind and form of the procurement, a corruption risk danger is created, a need of of parliamentary oversight, publicity and reporting arises. In order to provide the efficiency of the procurement the expert highlighted the right definition of the priorities of the purchasing goods, the development of the competitive process, the factor of the value of the goods and the accessibility of its further operation, the right assessment of the quality of the equipment, the opportunities and demand of the market and economic benefits, the involvement of the parliament in the procurement process, the establishment of close relations between the departments and the civil society of the security sector.

The former Minister of Defense of Bulgaria Todor Tagarev, the former First Deputy of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Leonid Polyakov and the Head of the Department of the Analysis of Economy and the Document Formulation for the Procurement Vladik Hovhannisyan talked about the role of the ministries in the defense sector. They presented the experience and the peculiarities of their countries in the procurement sector, beginning from the budgetary allocations, from the procurements up to the very implementation of the procurements.

Then the experts touched upon the problem of disclosing the corruption risks in different phases, conditioning the availability of the corruption phenomena, especially in the former Soviet territories at low level of the parliament oversight or with limited authorities.

The participants also discusses the role of the parliament and civil society in the governance monitoring and procurements of the defense sector, the main spheres of cooperation in the oversight, the monitoring mechanisms and the problems regarding the forms of the civil society involvement.