Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova presided over a scheduled plenary sitting of the Parliament on 13 April.

The approval of the agenda was followed by the discussion of the current issues. The parliamentary committee chairmen Musa Guliyev and Zahid Oruj and the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Shahin Ismayilov, Azay Guliyev, Musa Gasimli, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Ramin Mammadov, Sahib Aliyev and Ilham Mammadov commented on the opening of the Military Trophies Park graced by President Ilham Aliyev in Baku yesterday. They described it as an event that would help entrench the memory of Azerbaijan’s glorious victory in the 44-day Patriotic War. They said also that that was a demonstration of the reclaimed national territorial integrity and the restored historical justice.

The MPs brought up other questions of present interest, too.

Thereafter, Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova announced a nine-item agenda of the sitting, with the first item being the annual report by the Chamber of Accounts of the Azerbaijan Republic. She remarked that the report had been discussed thoroughly at a meeting of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprises participated by the chairs of the other Milli Majlis committees, their deputies and representatives of civic organisations. Such a broad participation made the consideration of the document yet more effective.

Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts Vugar Gulmammadov presented his entity’s 2020 performance report. He told the House that last year was to remain in our memories as a victory year in which we regained our territories after decades of occupation and in which also we shed the longing for the native lands. It was to become one of the brightest pages in the whole history of Azerbaijan, Mr Gulmammadov pointed out. As regards the Patriotic War that lasted 44 days, it is included in the world military science records as a strategy of victory wrought by the Commander-in-Chief of Azerbaijan. As Mr Gulmammadov stressed, the Chamber of Accounts was pointing it out to its overseas counterparts and international institutions from the very first day of combat that the war was being waged for justice and for restoration of the usurped rights.

Next, Mr Gulmammadov quoted the statistical indicators related to the COVID-19 pandemic that had lasted all last year, saying that the number of planned control activities had been reduced by 25% in the period marked with preference given to working remotely. That notwithstanding, the Chamber acted on time and promptly just as prescribed by the law. Its opinion statements regarding the drafts of the State Budget and of the estimates of the off-Budget state-owned funds as well as about the changes in a number of budget plans and the State Budget execution were composed and submitted for consideration of the MPs without delays. Incidentally, the report incorporates the principal recommendations contained in the appropriate resumes.

There were 41 external financial control activities in the reporting year; the audits accounted for 83% of that total.

The shortcomings arising in financial reporting are assignable to two main categories, according to Mr Gulmammadov. Erroneous representations in accountancy reporting are deemed graver owing to their consequences; such errors comprise the first group. The misrepresented amounts that the Chamber’s auditors found in the accounts they inspected equalled AZN 412.4 mn in the aggregate. As regards the second category, it consists of deviations from the accountancy principles and the cases in which accountancy postings were completed wrongly. The total amount resulting from such irregularities reached AZN 335.4 mn.

The 34 audit checks of 2020 found shortcomings in 452 cases; those were budget legislation violations, failures to comply with the legislative acts on state procurement and deviations in expenditure execution related to capital investments.

The control activities of last year mainly concerned agriculture, state procurement, analysing financial reports, budget planning and execution, and the reporting by the SSPF.

Mr Gulmammadov underscored the importance of eliminating inter-agency discrepancies in remuneration plans as well as of maintaining supervision of how state procurements are organised, conducted and executed. He also stressed the need to form an exacting data system and establish monitoring mechanisms to increase investment projects’ deliverables and impact on economic growth. The pressing nature of the problems that cause the well-known shortfalls in the progress of the information communication technologies in the country was highlighted as well.

Whilst talking about the results of the control activities, the chairman of the Chamber of Accounts remarked that transactions totalling at AZN 130.3 mn had been carried out with violation of the legal acts by the applied classification of faults in the reporting year. Sanctions were given to recover the aggregate of AZN 55.2 mn in monetary, substitute and in-kind forms; 94% of those were carried out.

The Chamber of Accounts strove for transparency and accountability in its work; it also increased the awareness of its opinion statements and reports as well as their public accessibility in the legally prescribed manner.

Also in 2020 was approved the Chamber’s new Strategy Plan for the years 2021-2025, Mr Gulmammadov recalled before capping his presentation with the outline of the tasks awaiting his department in 2021.

After that, Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili came up with his committee’s conclusion about the 2020 performance report by the Chamber of Accounts.

Mr Mirkishili mentioned that the Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising had scrutinised the annual report together with the First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis, the chairs of six other parliamentary committees whose respective areas of responsibility were covered in the report, the respective deputy committee chairs representing the Opposition and civic society actors. That was the idea and suggestion of Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova and that was the first meeting of the kind ever, according to Mr Mirkishili.

The report referenced in the work plan of the Chamber of Accounts contains information about audits, monitoring and analytical activities. It is spacious and all-encompassing. The document offers an exhaustive consideration of the scale and allocation of the revealed violations. There are clear indications of the practical domains liable to put an added burden on the state and the consolidated budgets. Besides, that the document specifies the tasks contained in the 2021-2025 strategic work plan of the Chamber and indicates the intention to build the future work in accordance with those tasks is decidedly praiseworthy. The fact that legitimacy, independence, transparency, accountability, impartiality and professionalism are defined as the guiding priorities will make the Chamber’s work more fruitful, in the opinion of Mr Mirkishili. Though the Chamber had to act relying on only 30% of its staff throughout the complicated year 2020, it still was able to reach the goals set for it in the main, he added.

That many proposals of the Chamber have materialised in legislative acts and governmental resolutions demonstrates vividly the effectiveness of the co-operation between the Parliament and the Government.

Continuing, Mr Mirkishili remarked that the identified accountancy, state procurement, state investment project execution and other procedural and process shortcomings required more serious and integrated measures. Proper process planning, process digitalisation as well as minimising the subjective factor have become preconditions to stricter financial discipline. The state budget of Azerbaijan is growing larger while the national economy is developing. The non-oil exports of the first three months of the current year represent an increase by 16.4% from the corresponding period of last year, having reached the record total of US$ 501 mn. This bodes for accelerated development of the national economy in the post-pandemic period and especially so in 2021 and 2022. One of the most crucial tasks stemming from this situation consists in employing the growing state funds effectively and checking state authorities for adequacy for reaching the goals set by the head of the state.

Concluding his resume, Mr Mirkishili remarked that the parliamentary Committee had found the annual report by the Chamber of Accounts to be acceptable at its meeting.

The MPs Musa Guliyev, Ali Masimli, Razi Nurullayev, Zahid Oruj, Rashad Mahmudov, Azay Guliyev, Etibar Aliyev, Elman Nasirov and Sadig Gurbanov took the floor during the deliberations that followed. They commended the document whilst also putting forth a number of remarks and suggestions concerning it.

Then, Vugar Gulmammadov asked the MPs for their appraisals of the work done by the Chamber of Accounts and commented on the matters they had brought up.

The 2020 performance report of the Chamber of Accounts was noted in the end.

Next in order were the draft amendments to the Execution Law, tabled by First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli. Mr Huseynli told the Assembly that the document had been drawn up in execution of the law No 1704-VQD dated 29 November 2019 that had amended the Tax Code of the Azerbaijan Republic and that the present amendments were of the unifying nature.

The Bill was approved in the third reading then.

It was a member of the above parliamentary Committee Kamal Jafarov who presented the draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Azerbaijan Republic to the House.

MP Razi Nurullayev commented on the Bill before it was approved in the second reading.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said then that the next two items on the agenda, namely, the draft amendments to the laws ‘On Perpetuating the Shahid Title and Concessions for the Shahid Families’ and ‘On Veterans’, had arrived at the Milli Majlis in one package and were closely interrelated by essence.

Deputy Chair of the Labour and Social Policy Committee tabled both Bills.

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Ali Huseynli and the MPs Aghil Abbas, Sabir Rustamkhanli, Sahib Aliyev, Musa Gasimli, Novruzali Aslanov, Hikmat Mammadov, Rauf Aliyev and Fatma Yildirim took part in the debate. They all stated their views of the Bills. After that, both Bills were voted through the second reading one by one.

Madame Chair remarked then that the next two agenda items, too, had been submitted to the Milli Majlis in one message from the President of the Republic and were akin to each other substantively as well. Those were the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Individual Accounting in the State Social Insurance System’ and to the Labour Code.

Those two Bills were presented to the Parliament by, again, Malahat Ibrahimghizi who mentioned their unanimous approval by the Committee in the second reading. The amendments contained in them are unifying ones.

Those two Bills were put on vote one by one and approved in the second reading as well.

Amina Agazade of the Milli Majlis Law Policy and State-Building Amina Agazade then tabled the draft amendments (in the first reading) to the Law ‘On the Prosecution Authorities’.

According to MP Agazade, the amendments are designed to tighten the social safety net for the prosecution personnel and improve the prosecution authorities’ basic infrastructure and logistics. Besides, it is proposed to transfer 5% of the monies going to the State Budget at inquest stages, 5% of the monies entered into the State Budget against absolute discharge of defendants in the criminal cases investigated by the prosecution authorities in line with the procedures stipulated in the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic and, last, 23% of the fines incoming in the administrative offence cases submitted to courts of law for consideration by prosecutors in keeping with the procedures prescribed by the Code of Administrative Offences of the Azerbaijan Republic to the treasury account of the Prosecution Office of the Azerbaijan Republic in order to offset the damage dealt to the State in the criminal cases being investigated by the prosecution authorities and consequent to other crimes encompassed by the criminal prosecution files

The MPs Razi Nurullayev and Erkin Gadirli commented on the Bill. Amina Agazade clarified some points the MPs had brought up. Then, the Bill was approved in the first reading.

Amina Agazade also advised the Parliament of the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Serving in the Prosecution Authorities’, which she said were the new provisions about on-the-job training and probation periods in the legal prosecution system as well as about early advances in rank of prosecution officers. In addition, she said, the amendments would, again, serve the cause of improving the social security of the personnel.

MP Agazade answered in detail to the questions of the MPs Gudrat Hasanguliyev and Arzu Naghiyev.

The Bill was approved in the first reading and with that, the sitting of the Milli Majlis was over.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis