The delegation led by Atom Janjughazyan, Chairman of the Audit Chamber was on an official visit to the United States of America on May 1 – 5, 2023. The visit was organized within the framework of the joint project of the RA Audit Chamber, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO)., During the visit, the Chairman of the Audit Chamber Atom Janjughazyan, met with the head of the US GAO, Comptroller General of the United States, Gene Dodaro.

Gene Dodaro, the head of the US GAO, welcomed the Chairman of the Audit Chamber of Armenia Atom Janjughazyan and the delegation and noted that the American partners wereimpressed by the results of the trilateral cooperation. The US Comptroller General praised the latest developments in the strategic domains of the Chamber's reforms.

Atom Janjughazyan, the Chairman of the Audit Chamber, expressed his gratitude for the appreciation of the implemented activities. He assured that the Audit Chamber strives to achieve a constant rise in efficiency through the strengthening of the institution. Atom Janjughazyan emphasized the importance of  support received from the American side for the reform activities. The Chairman of  the RA Audit Chamber  noted that from the perspective of reforms in the field of external state audit, the support received from the United States institutions with more than a hundred years of experience deserves a big appreciation.

Atom Janjughazyan suggested his US counterpart to consider the possibility of continuing the professional and technical support in the new strategic cycle of improving the activities of the Audit Chamber.

Gene Dodaro expressed his willingness to continue the support to the reform program in  the field of external public audit of RA, using the  capacities  of the US GAO Audit Excellence Center.

During the meeting, the systemic issues related to the field of external public audit in both countries, as well as the current challenges and prospects facing the supreme audit institutions were discussed. In this regard, the US Comptroller General presented the experience of the entity he leads and the efforts invested in the INTOSAI (International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions) community.

During the visit, the Chairman of the Audit Chamber, Atom Janjughazyan also met with USAID Chief Financial Officer, Reggie Mitchell, USAID anti-corruption taskforce group and representatives of the Office of Inspector General. The USAID CFO highly praised the results of the three-year cooperation program with the Audit Chamber and reassured USAID’s commitment to continue the support. The President of the Audit Chamber expressed his satisfaction with the effective environment of cooperation with the USAID Armenia office, noting that USAID continues to be a key donor and partner for the Chamber's capacity development.

Within the scope of the visit, the delegation of the Audit Chamber had meetings with the representatives of the staffs of the internal security and government affairs of the upper house of the US Congress (Senate), as well as the control and accountability committees of the US House of Representatives, during which they discussed issues regarding the cooperation of the US GAO and the legislative.

During the visit, the delegation of the Audit Chamber also visited the Public Service Partnership office, which carries out activities aimed at developing capacities of the employees of the US federal agencies.

Note:

On June 23, 2020, the "Technical Assistance to the Audit Chamber of the Republic of Armenia" three-year program with a total cost of 1 million USD was launched, which is implemented by the Government of the United States of America, within the framework of the center's interagency agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Audit Excellence Center of the  Supreme Audit Institution  of the United States (GAO).

As part of the three-year program, GAO's Center of Audit Excellence intended to provide capacity building, training, and consulting services to the RA Audit Chamber.

Since 2020, GAO's Center of Audit Excellence has supported the Audit Chamber in needs assessment, legal reform consultation, development of ethics rules and monitoring mechanisms, audit planning, quality management system, financial and compliance audit methodology development, improvement of communication channels and in other fields. The Armenian counterpart of GAO's Center of Audit Excellence is the Methodology, Analysis and International Relations department of the Audit Chamber of Armenia.