Strengthening Budget Execution

Nov 14 – 28, 2016 , Ljubljana, Slovenia Online course
Dec 7 – 9, 2016 , Ljubljana, Slovenia Workshop
Nov 6, 2016
English

SEE countries face challenges in ensuring budget credibility, regulation, and implementation, leading to frequent budget amendments, arrears and ineffective use of financial resources. Weaknesses in expenditure controls are often exposed when unacceptable levels of payments outstanding to a variety of government creditors arise – often revealed under fiscal stress. Expenditure controls in several countries in SEE have been tested in recent years, revealing stocks of arrears. Especially EU candidate countries engage in an effort to further develop their public internal control systems, as part of their pre-accession negotiations with the European Commission.

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Workshop Day 3

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Workshop Day 1

We are half-way through our blended learning course Strengthening Budget Execution. Participants successfully completed...

Posted by Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) on Tuesday, December 6, 2016

E-Learning Phase

Recruitment Stage

 

Blended Learning Journey

  • E-LEARNING phase, Nov 14-28, workload ~3 hrs / week
    We started our learning journey online, with promoting a common understanding of the budget execution system, the stages of the expenditure cycle, analyzing the stakeholders involved and their responsibilities, and describing how a treasury could be organized, and its main functions.
  • Face-to-face WORKSHOP in Ljubljana, Dec 7-9
    Later on, we met in Ljubljana to take a closer look at the core features of the PFM system, which help to keep the budget on track. We discussed how the various controls interact to ensure effective budget execution, and examples of good practice in the region for effective budget execution control.

Learning Objectives

The overall learning objective of this initiative has been to reinforce budget execution management. More specifically, it aimed to:

  • Introduce the activities, procedures and rules involved in the process of budget execution
  • Strengthen the understanding of the controls needed to assure that budget execution complies with rules, and the interdependencies of different controls
  • Explore strategies for tackling budget execution problems if they do arise

Topics discussed have been

  • Regional challenges in ensuring budget credibility and regulating the budget
  • Means of controlling different types of expenditure (e.g. in the context of program budgeting)
  • The importance of managing cash effectively during execution of the budget
  • Implications for IT systems
  • Clarifying institutional roles and coordination
  • Managing arrears if and when they become a problem
  • Fiscal Reporting

How participants benefited

By the end of this learning journey, participants have been enabled to:

  • Describe the overall budget execution process
  • Understand the importance of credible budget planning to successful execution
  • Determine the core procedures for efficient execution and delivery of the budget
  • Explain what is required for effective control of commitments
  • Define types and causes of expenditure arrears
  • Outline the features of an effective IT system to execute the budget
  • Review current execution processes
  • Explain the importance of efficient cash and debt management operations

Who attended

This learning initiative has been designed for senior public finance officials at ministries of finance and treasuries whose responsibilities are focused primarily on the execution of the budget, i.e. those working at treasury departments on budget execution systems, chart of accounts, as well as treasury and cash management.

No fee has been charged for officials working in the public sector, and meals and refreshments during the workshop will be provided. Flights, airport transfers in Slovenia, and accommodation for the workshop have been arranged for up to two participants per beneficiary country (i.e. the 12 CEF constituent countries, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine). Candidates had to be approved by the CEF.

Contributions from participants

The learning journey has been highly participatory, and participants will be encouraged to share their experiences and country practices with their colleagues. This learning initiative has been delivered in English; participants were required to be proficient.

FACULTY

SUZANNE FLYNN, PFM Advisor for South East Europe, FAD, IMF

Suzanne Flynn is a Senior Economist at the Fiscal Affairs Department. She joined the IMF five years ago after six years working in East Africa with PwC and in the Ugandan treasury. She started her career in the UK public service in 1987, starting in central government, and qualifying as a CIPFA accountant in local government in 1991. Before embarking on her career in Africa, she spent 3 years working for CIPFA in London. She has also worked in a number of Asian and Central Asian countries, and worked with several governments in South East Europe. Ms. Flynn is the new IMF PFM Advisor for South East Europe.

DUNCAN LAST, Senior Economist, FAD, IMF

For the last two years, Duncan Last has been the IMF PFM Advisor for South East Europe, having previously been based in IMF headquarters for the last 8 years. Prior to that he had been working in the field for 20 years covering various topics in public financial management, including: PFM advisor in the IMF’s AFRITAC East Regional Technical Assistance Center; budget and treasury advisor in Slovenia also covering various countries in the region, during which time he helped establish the Center of Excellence in Finance; budget and IFMIS advisor in Mali and Papua New Guinea, debt management advisor in Papua New Guinea, and debt management software designer at the Commonwealth Secretariat in UK.

DEON FLORIAN TANZER, GFS Advisor for South East Europe, IMF

Deon Florian Tanzer works for the IMF and has been based at the CEF since September 2016. He is a technical advisor for government finance statistics (GFS) in South East Europe. He advises compilers in various national institutions on how to develop GFS data and data reporting, both for the IMF and the EU in compliance with the fiscal reporting requirements (the so-called Maastricht deficit and debt and the Excessive Deficit Procedure). He has gained extensive experience in GFS at the IMF and Statistics Netherlands. His work is funded by the Swiss Government.

RENSE POSTHUMUS, Policy Advisor, Ministry of Finance, The Netherlands

Rense Posthumus works for the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands. His background lies in mathematical systems and modeling. Since 2009, he works in the budget office as a policy advisor. Before working at the budget office he was the first information architect of the Ministry of Finance. A leading element in his career is the presentation and combination of HRM and financial data. In 2012, he was the project leader for harmonizing the cost types across all the ministries, and also helped to introduce a new system (Accountable Budgeting) for the presentation of the Dutch budget memoranda. In recent years, he was a driving force for making the budget more transparent and releasing it in the form of open data.

NINO TCHELISHVILI, Deputy Head of State Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Georgia

Nino Tchelishvili is a Public Finance Management Professional with more than 15 years of experience in managing Treasury accounts and operations, and supervising the presentation of Fiscal and Financial Reporting. She has been a deputy head of the Treasury Service since 2004, having accomplished various PFM reform projects with proven success, such as: Implementation of a fully functional Treasury Single Account in 2006; Implementation of a GFS 2001 based Treasury General Ledger in 2008; and Launch of web based Treasury Information System in 2010. She is currently leading the IPSAS project and Public Financial Management Information system projects in the State Treasury. 
Nino Tchelishvili is engaged in IMF technical assistance missions in the Caucasus and Central Asia region as a short term expert in a treasury area.

 

Partners

This CEF learning initiative has been delivered with financial support provided by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, and complementary funding provided by the CEF through its core funding from the Slovene Ministry of Finance. - IMF experts have contributed their expertise in kind, which has been supported by the EU and the Swiss government.

Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands Ministry of Finance, Slovenia