CESD Presented New Policy Paper

Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD) presented new policy paper on oil revenue monitoring on August, 25, 2010. Leyla Aliyeva, project manager, mentioned that the influx of petrodollars to the country in recent years has paved the way for considerable expenditures in the state budget and the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ).Azerbaijan’s oil revenues are mainly allocated to finance projects for road construction, transport, water supply, building of houses for refugees and IDPs. The major challenge now is to spend these revenues efficiently and transparently. In fact, all the problems stem from gaps in public procurements and lack of competitive environment whilst conducting tender procedures.With funding from USA-headquartered Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), our case study on tenders announced for the projects and programs funded by SOFAZ showed that even no tender had been carried out in restrained terms, while tenders claimed to have been conducted violated all provisions of the Law on Public Procurement. Since no announcement about tender and its results was published in organ of press; the names of all tenders bidding for the project were not publicly disclosed; the announcement did not provide information about engineering study, the description of goods to be delivered and works to be performed.