Alimammad Nuriyev, Coordinator of the Government and Civil Society Dialogue Platform on Open Government Partnership Initiative, made a statement on the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers ‘to make amendments to the registration procedures of the grant agreements (decrees)’,

According to the statement, this decree particularly simplifies registration of grants from foreign donors stipulated by “The registration of the grant agreements (contracts)”.

“We evaluate today’s decree of the Cabinet of Ministers on ‘The registration of the grant agreements (decrees)’ as a positive result of the N.1083 Decree dated 21 October 2016 signed by the President of Azerbaijan ‘on the application of the ‘single window’ principles when issuing foreign grants in  the territory of Azerbaijan’. He added that ‘this decree significantly eliminates many requirements that have been creating artificial barriers and bureaucratic obstacles in registration of the grant agreements and simplifies the registration procedures.
The scope of documents to be submitted for registration of the grant agreement is significantly reduced;

–          The requirement to submit  a number of notarized documents is cancelled;

–          if the subject of the grant agreement (contract) is to carry out a service or a work, the agreement is registered as a service contract;

–          The submission and review period are increased for the registration of the grant agreement (contracts);

–          Obligations of the Ministry of Justice to check, if funds of the grant were obtained through legalization of criminal proceeds, as per the regulations of the Republic of Azerbaijan on combating terrorism, are lifted.   

 All of these amendments will significantly improve the legal environment in registration of grant agreements.

Nuriyev stated that recommendations of the Open Government Platform were taken into account in making the amendments to the ‘registration of the grant agreements (contracts)’: “It can be evaluated as a significant example of efficient discussions of the government-civil society institutions. The problems that worry civil society institutions are being tackled.

According to A. Nuriyev, changes in the rules on donor grants are being prepared: “We consider that processes for implementation of the N.1083 Decree dated 21 October 2016 signed by the President of Azerbaijan ‘on the application of the ‘single window’ principles when issuing foreign grants in the territory of Azerbaijan’ has not been completed yet. After that, ‘the procedure of obtaining the right to grant by the foreign donors in the territory of Azerbaijan’ will undergo significant simplification.