Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was presented today with the performance report 2022 of the Inspection bodies adjunct to the Government.
Deputy Prime Ministers Mher Grigoryan and Tigran Khachatryan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan, Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs, Economy, Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Environment, Heads of Inspection Bodies, acting Head of the Inspection Bodies' Coordination Bureau Armen Danielyan, other officials participated in the discussion.
The heads of inspection bodies reported to the Prime Minister on the work done in 2022.
About 3,000 inspections were carried out by the health and labor inspection body in the directions of ensuring the sanitary and epidemiological safety of the population, medical care and service, circulation of drugs, labor law, health care and safety of workers. 1500 violations were registered, the amount of the fines amounted to about 917 million AMD.
The environmental protection and mining inspection body carried out about 240 inspetions in the directions of atmospheric air protection, use and protection of water, land, subsoil resources, use and preservation of fauna and flora, study of hazardous substances, industrial and municipal solid waste. As a result of inspections, 2393 violations were recorded, fines amounting to 99 million AMD were applied, and the number of suspensions was 27. 41 cases of illegal soil use were detected. Preventive measures were also implemented in the mentioned directions.
The education inspection body carried out 212 inspections in the fields of preschool education, general education, primary and secondary vocational education, and recorded 1544 violations. In 2022, "Assistance to the organization of teaching" program was launched, within the framework of which teachers' methodological and technology skills, professional knowledge were evaluated, as a result, recommendations on the educational process were provided. In 40 schools, the residual knowledge of students was checked, measures were taken by the Ministry of Rducation, Science, Culture and Sport to improve the quality of education.
The market surveillance inspection body carried out 568 inspections in the fields of safety of non-food products, ensuring the uniformity of measurements, precious metals, tobacco products, raw material reserves and industrial hemp, the number of recorded violations was 446. 461 decisions on administrative liability were made, the amount of the fines was about 139 million AMD. It was noted that in 2022 the market surveillance inspection body acquired laboratory equipment, which will allow to re-equip and improve the infrastructure.
The food safety inspection body carried out 3,217 inspections, within the framework of which 1,425 violations were found, 1,212 decisions were made on administrative penalties, and a fine of about 102 million AMD was imposed. As part of the inspections made in the field of food safety, 667 cases of non-compliance with labeling requirements, 229 cases of expired food circulation, and 71 cases of non-observance of sanitary and hygienic norms were recorded. 270 checks on the slaughterhouse origin of meat were carried out, the number of violations was 93. 7 cases of food poisoning were registered. In general, as a result of the state-private sector collaborative work, the number of poisoning cases decreased by 2 times, and the number of poisoned persons decreased by 7.5 times. 78 production activities were suspended, 57 of which have already been reopened, violations by 21 are in the process of being corrected.
The urban development, technical and fire safety inspection body carried out 1490 inspections in the directions of transport, energy and energy consumption, fire and technical safety, urban planning, geodesy and land use, and recorded 8943 violations. In 1204 educational and 189 pre-educational institutions, fire-technical investigations were carried out, 4595 and 1337 violations were revealed, respectively, and 2019 violations were recorded in 338 health facilities. As a result of fire-technical investigations of 209 gas stations in Yerevan, 578 violations were recorded, more than 27,000 observations were made in the field of transport safety, and 271 arbitrary structures were identified in the field of urban development. A total of 2,760 administrative fines were imposed in the amount of 466 million AMD.
The heads of inspection bodies noted in their reports that legislative changes were initiated in the reporting year, public awareness measures were implemented, and digital tools were introduced in the control process. Information was also presented on structural reforms and staffing.
The works and legislative initiatives carried out by the Inspection Bodies' Coordination Bureau were also presented to the Prime Minister. It was noted that as a result of the analysis, some problems were raised, which make it necessary to clarify the strategic approaches of control and, accordingly, to improve the inspection functions, procedures, and tools.
Next, there was an exchange of ideas regarding the reports, questions related to the presented topics were discussed, and further actions were discussed.
The Prime Minister addressed the issue of inspection strategy, emphasizing the assessment of the impact of inspection results on the policy development process and the development of standards. "We need to set standards in all areas in order to be able to carry out propper and quality control," the Head of Government noted. Nikol Pashinyan spoke about the continuous introduction of digital tools in the inspection system, which will allow to develop the level of interoperability of systems and increase work efficiency. The Prime Minister emphasized the need to continue the reforms in a number of directions and gave instructions based on the results of the consultation.
