The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System (P155630) REPORT NO.: RES39539 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL STRATEGY PROGRAM FOR STRENGTHENING OF THE NATIONAL STATISTICAL SYSTEM APPROVED ON FEBRUARY 28, 2017 TO STATISTICAL COMMITTEE OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA POVERTY AND EQUITY EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Regional Vice President: Cyril E Muller Country Director: Sebastian-A Molineus Global Director: Carolina Sanchez Practice Manager/Manager: Salman Zaidi Task Team Leader(s): Saida Ismailakhunova The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System (P155630) ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS NSSRA National Statistical System of the Republic of Armenia NCRA Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia MoF Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia PDO Project development objective PID Project Implementation Department POM Project Operational Manual RA The Republic of Armenia TP Twinning partnership The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System (P155630) Note to Task Teams: The following sections are system generated and can only be edited online in the Portal. BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P155630 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Approval Date Current Closing Date 28-Feb-2017 30-Jun-2021 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia Financing (in USD Million) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Project Cost 0 Total Financing 0 Financing Gap 0 DETAILS -NewFin3 The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System (P155630) Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The objectives of the Project is to further improve the capacity of the national statistical system of Armenia and technical capacity of the staff at the NSSRA to produce and disseminate in a timely manner statistics that are in line with international standards. OPS_TABLE_PDO_CURRENTPDO Summary Status of Financing Net TF Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-A4543 24-Apr-2017 28-Apr-2017 05-Jul-2017 30-Jun-2021 3.00 .86 2.14 Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No Note to Task Teams: End of system generated content, document is editable from here. The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System () I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System () A. Project Status 1. The project is rated as “moderately satisfactory” for the project implementation as well as for progress towards PDO in the latest ISR. The Grant Agreement and the Disbursement Letter have been signed by the World Bank in March 2017 and the Ministry of Finance in April 2017, and the Project reached effectiveness in July 2017. The Contract for the Twinning Partnership (the largest procurement package, 43 activities, including 10 key experts) was signed with a Consortium on December 3, 2018 and is under implementation accroding to the agreed action plan. Further Terms of Reference are finalized and expected to be implemented according to agreed schedule. The disbursement rate is at 30 percent and expected to accelerate for the second half of the project life. Currently the financial management under the project is satisfactory and there are no pending audits under the project. B. Rational for restructuring 2. This is a second restructuring for the project due to changes proposed for fiduciary functions by the Government in Armenia for World Bank funded projects. The first restructuring was completed successfully in May 2019. The transition of the fiduciary function from FFPMC to PID between March and May 2019 slowed down the preparation and implementation of activities under the AR STAT, and disrupted the flow of funds to consultants. After restructuring of the AR STAT project the project implementation accelerated again till the new decision on transferring of fiduciary function was made. 3. This project restructuring is in response to the request from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia (MoF) dated November 6, 2019. The request is to replace the Project Implementation Department (“PID”) as the project implementing agency under MoF responsible for fiduciary functions with the Republic of Armenia (RA) Statistical Committee. According to the RA Law “On 2019 State Budget” the line ministries (relevant bodies) are considered as chief budgetary executives responsible for the implementation and fiducially aspects of sectoral projects. The proposed amendment does not entail any other changes to the project. The procurement risk will be reassessed once the dedicated procurement expert will be on place. 1. 2. The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System () II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES 3. The Government of Armenia has requested the World Bank to change the institutional arrangements for the procurement and financial management functions for the Armenia Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistics System (Grant No. TF0A4543). It has been requested that the Project Implementation Department (“PID”) as the Project implementing agency, under the Ministry of Finance, responsible for fiduciary functions, is replaced with Republic of Armenia (RA) Statistical Committee. The “RA Statistical Committee” will carry out all the activities of the “PID” which, preserving all capacities and functions of the latter. The “RA Statistical Committee” shall ensure the availability of the staff with adequate capacity/experience to carry out all the activities of the “PID” , preserving all capacities and functions of the latter. 4. The amendments to the Letter Agreement proposed by the Government of Armenia are the following: i. The definition in paragraph 1.02 (a) of the Annex is deleted entirely. ii. The wording “(with involvement of the FFPMC)” in paragraph 1.02 (d) of the Article I (“Standard Conditions; Definitions”) of the Annex is deleted entirely. iii. The wording “, with the support of PID” in paragraph 2.03 (b) of the Article II (“Project Execution”) of the Annex is deleted entirely. iv. The acronym “PID” is replaced with the term “RA Statistical Committee” in paragraph 2.03 (c) of the Article 2 (“Project Execution”) of the Annex. v. The wording “and PID” in paragraph 3.01 of the Article III (“Withdrawal of Grant Proceeds”) of the Annex is deleted entirely in the whole paragraph. Note to Task Teams: The following sections are system generated and can only be edited online in the Portal. The World Bank Implementation of the National Strategy Program for Strengthening of the National Statistical System () III. SUMMARY OF CHANGES Changed Not Changed Institutional Arrangements ✔ Implementing Agency ✔ Project's Development Objectives ✔ Results Framework ✔ Components and Cost ✔ Loan Closing Date(s) ✔ Cancellations Proposed ✔ Additional Financing Proposed ✔ Reallocation between Disbursement Categories ✔ Disbursements Arrangements ✔ Disbursement Estimates ✔ Change in Overall Risk Rating ✔ Safeguard Policies Triggered ✔ EA category ✔ Legal Covenants ✔ Financial Management ✔ Procurement ✔ Implementation Schedule ✔ Other Change(s) ✔ IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S) Note to Task Teams: End of system generated content, document is editable from here.