Friday, 13 March 2009
The Governing Council of Millenium Challenge Account-Armenia SNCO met at the Office of Government, presided at by GC Chairman, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The Council discussed and approved a package of application and attached documents for an eleventh disbursement under the program which will be submitted to the MCC for endorsement. This package includes a summary report, quarterly and annual financial statements, the statement of preconditions, the working plan, as well as the procurements plan and the procurement performance report. MCA-Armenia SNCO Executive Director Ara Hovsepyan noted that under the mentioned request, MCA-Armenia SNCO expects to get USD 7,993,939 next quarter (April - June, 2009) through the general system of settlements. Projected quarterly expenditure will rise to USD 8,128,289.
According to Mr. Hovsepyan, the per-activity breakup of expenditures under this 11th disbursement will be as follows: Rural Roads Rehabilitation – nearly USD 432,000; Irrigated Agriculture – USD 6.8 MN. The balance will be used to carry out monitoring and evaluation, program management and oversight. Ara Hovsepyan also pointed out that the Government has funded the rehabilitation of rural roads to the amount equivalent of USD 12, 026,778 MN. The remaining balance will be used to cover those activities foreseen under the first package. In April-May, when the resources available from the Government will have been used in full, another disbursement request will be submitted to the MCA to ensure continuity in road building activities.
The funds received under the Irrigated Agriculture component will be used to complete the construction of 6 water-mains, to design pump-stations and gravity systems, to build tertiary canals in 4 communities, as well as to design the Ararat Valley drainage system. Farmers will receive 3 million dollars via lending entities. The Executive Director indicated that as of late this quarter, actual and planned expenditure (for the month of March) will total USD 30,810,276 MN.
Once approved by the GC Chairman, the request package will be submitted to the MCC for approval.
The session further discussed and endorsed the pre-qualification results and the shortlist of the competition announced for pump-station rehabilitation works under the Infrastructure Activity of the Irrigated Agriculture project. The meeting similarly approved the draft credit agreement to be concluded under the loan sub-components of the Water-to-Market Activity of said project.
