BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. Azerbaijan is continuing efforts to bring electronic contract signing, the processing of acceptance certificates and treasury operations under a unified system as part of the digitalization of public finance, Nurlan Soltanov, head of the Modern Technologies and Innovations Department at the Finance Ministry's Administrative Office, said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He made the remarks on Thursday at a conference in Baku dedicated to the digital transformation of public finance.
According to him, the introduction of the electronic contract system has accelerated the contract processing procedure. Some contracts are now signed within just 10 hours, significantly faster than before.
Soltanov said that the electronic signing of acceptance certificates entered an active phase in September, allowing all related procedures to be managed within a unified framework.
He noted that efforts to digitize budget preparation and the treasury system were helping speed up payment transactions. The positive effects of these changes are already becoming apparent in stages.
The department head stressed that the digitalization of public finance was not limited to measures implemented by the Finance Ministry. Integration with several government agencies is underway as part of the electronic contract system.
“We are already integrating the electronic contract system with three or four different government agencies. In particular, direct integration through information systems has been established with the State Service for Antimonopoly and Consumer Market Control and the State Tax Service,” he said.
According to Soltanov, this integration is intended to improve the efficiency of public fund management and expand the capabilities of the electronic accounting system.
He said that automatically recording information on goods received under contracts in the electronic accounting system, while processing payments through a unified platform without the need for additional data transfers between systems, would save government agencies time and improve operational efficiency.
Soltanov noted that the new electronic accounting system is designed not only to improve the Finance Ministry's operations but also to simplify internal management processes at organizations funded by the state budget and other government agencies.
According to him, implementing the system will help improve accounting practices across public sector organizations, ensure more accurate data recording and enable financial operations to be managed according to a unified approach.
Soltanov added that the phased rollout and integration of electronic contract, electronic accounting, budget and treasury systems would bring all key stages of public fund management within a single digital framework.
“As we gradually launch all the subsystems, it will become possible to ensure the efficient management of public funds across the entire process, from budget preparation and treasury operations to the implementation of control mechanisms,” he stressed.
