Financing of Karabakh has slowed down

Baku/12.08.21/Turan: In the first half of this year, only 16.9 percent of the funds provided for the reconstruction and restoration of Karabakh were spent in the State Budget. The Ministry of Finance said that although Azerbaijan planned to spend 2.2 billion manats for these purposes this year, only 372.1 million manats were spent in January-June.  Why are funds for the reconstruction and restoration of Karabakh spent so sparingly?

Member of the Milli Mejlis Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship Rufat Guliyev told Turan that the government's policy towards Karabakh is based on the principle of "measure seven times, cut one." “Besides, Smart City and Smart Village are not just projects. This requires very precise detailing and rendering. We treat everything with caution and do not want to make even the slightest mistakes, as it was during the gigantic construction started in Azerbaijan in the 2000s. "

The member of the committee noted that at that time only the roads that had been built were collapsing, the facing was not carried out according to the rules. “There was a lot. Only that the enterprises that were open, similar to 5-star hotels, were closed after working for two or three months. What we need today is a low-cost, income-generating economy. Today we are witnessing intensive development. In addition, the most modern technologies in the world are used to restore Karabakh."

According to Guliyev, there should be no haste in this matter. “In my opinion, all these allocated funds will not be spent by the end of the year. Only those funds will be spent that are allocated for the restoration of infrastructure - the construction of roads, the laying of gas and water pipelines, and power lines. "

Economist Natig Jafarli said that there is a bad tradition in Azerbaijan when the use of allocated funds is postponed to the second half of the year. “This, among other things, is due to the fact that in the first half of the year the work on paperwork is carried out slowly, and according to the law, if the funds allocated from the budget were not spent, then at the end of the year they must be returned to the budget. Therefore, at the end of the year, especially in November-December, we will witness large sums of money spent by government agencies."

The full allocation of money from the budget this year completed in March, the expert says. “The allocation of money began after March, and the work began in April-July. Therefore, starting in August, we will witness an accelerated spending."

According to Jafarli, one of the key problems here is the transparency. "It is not clear  for which projects money  are allocated, which companies or subcontractors they are being implemented."