This training activity will be delivered as part of the Strategic Planning and Budgeting (SPB) project, funded by the European Union. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening of beneficiary countries’ capacity to design and implement medium-term macro-fiscal policy.
Description
As part of the annual budget preparation process, ministries of finance determine the macroeconomic framework, establish expenditure ceilings for the different budget users, and instruct them in submitting their requests, i.e. by assuring that estimates are made in consistence with macro-fiscal objectives, and by challenging submitted costing of existing and any new policy proposals. Budget users’ submissions are also a crucial part of preparing strategic macro-fiscal documents, as, for example, the Economic and Fiscal Program (EFP) or Pre-Accession Economic Program that is assessed by the European Commission on an annual basis.
Budget submissions have often been criticized as being too optimistic or inconsistent with macro-fiscal forecasts. Such shortcomings have been linked to coordination and responsibility issues between budget users, challenges in ministries of finance’ guidance of budget users, as well as to budget users’ limited capacities in preparing their budget submissions, e.g. with respect to costing the fiscal impact of structural reforms. The Workshop aims at strengthening the quality of budget submissions of budget users (in particular budget-intensive line ministries). Case studies will illustrate budget submissions at examples of a budget-intensive sector (i.e. transport infrastructure).
The Workshop will build on such shortcomings, which have also been identified within the CEF’s Fiscal Impact Assessment of Structural Reforms project. In this project, beneficiaries from South East Europe (SEE) discussed country case studies on how fiscal costs of structural reforms are integrated into countries’ annual budgets and medium-term fiscal documents. Whereas ministries of finance benefited more from training and networking, budget users have had fewer such opportunities so far.
How you will benefit
The primary objective of the workshop is to strengthen budget users’ capacity to respond to budget instructions. It aims to:
- promote a joint understanding of the importance of good macro-fiscal frameworks, especially in the context of preparing for EU accession
- explore key institutions involved in the budget preparation process, especially with respect to crosscutting, inter-sectoral policies and structural reforms
- discuss critical elements in the guidance of budget users’ submissions, i.e. with respect to the quality of instructions, templates, formats, definitions, and hearings
- explore the operations and methodology needed to assess the fiscal impact of existing and any new policy proposals
- promote an exchange of good practice in assuring realistic and consistent budget submissions
Target audience
The workshop has been designed primarily for mid-to-senior level officials working at line ministries (and other budget users) who provide inputs for the annual budget process and preparation of strategic macro-fiscal documents (e.g., program managers, planning and financing experts, and heads of relevant departments responding to ministry of finance requests).
Mid-to-senior level officials working at ministries of finance (and other coordinating institutions) who integrate such inputs into the annual budget and strategic macro-fiscal documents (e.g., the intermediate and final authors of EFP/PEP reports) are also kindly invited to attend the workshop.
Contributions from participants
The workshop will be highly participatory. Participants are encouraged to be active in discussions and exercises throughout the three days. As part of knowledge exchange, they will have to present their countries’ fiscal programming and most recent budget circular, and indicate aspects of recent improvements, problems, and best practice.
The workshop will be held in English.
Faculty
(as per the program)
MOJMIR MRAK, Professor of International Finance, University of Ljubljana, and CEF Associate Fellow
Mojmir Mrak is a Jean Monnet Chair professor of international finance at the University of Ljubljana and a regular visiting professor at post-graduate programs of the universities of Siena and Vienna. His main research fields include capital flows, trade and project finance, and EU institutional and public finance issues. Professor Mrak is author of numerous books and articles.
Mr. Mrak has more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing the Slovenian government's policy in areas of international finance and EU accession. In the first five years following independence in 1991, he was the chief external debt negotiator of Slovenia. In addition, he was responsible for the early credit arrangements of Slovenia with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. Between 1998 and 2002, he was chief advisor of the Slovenian government on financial aspects of the country’s EU accession. Within this framework, he was responsible for negotiations about the financial package of Slovenia’s accession. Between 2003 and early 2006, he coordinated the Slovene government’s activities with respect to the 2007-2013 financial perspective of the EU, and is currently involved in negotiations about the 2014-2020 financial perspective of the EU.
Mr. Mrak has served as a consultant to numerous international organizations and several governments in South East Europe. He is a CEF Associate Fellow.
DIRK-JAN KRAAN, CEF Advisor
Dirk-Jan Kraan is a Dutch citizen. He holds MA degrees in Law (1970) and Economics (1976) from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and a PhD degree in Economics from the same university (1989). He worked in several positions in the Directorate General of the Budget of the Dutch Ministry of Finance from 1980 to 2002, lately as head of the Division of Policy Review of the Inspectorate of Finance (Expenditure Division).
Mr. Kraan joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2002 as a senior economist in the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division of the Directorate of Public Governance and Territorial Development. At the OECD he was among other things responsible for the Eastern European program of the Budgeting and Expenditure Division and for the OECD Value for Money Study on the organization of central government. In 2012-2014, he was based at the CEF as the IMF's Regional Advisor on Public Financial Management for South East Europe, and has become an Advisor to the CEF thereafter.
ALEKSANDRA IVANOVSKA, Head of Budget Coordination Unit, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Macedonia
Aleksandra Ivanovska is a Macedonian citizen. She has graduated economics at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, more specifically in the field of accounting and auditing. She has joined the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 2008, working in the financial affairs department. Currently, Ms. Ivanovska holds the position of Head of Budget Coordination Unit, responsible for the preparation and coordination of the draft budget proposal, preparation of the Annual Financial Report, drafting quarterly and monthly financial plans, and drafting budget execution reports as well as activities related to the implementation of Public Internal Financial Control (PIFC) reform. In 2013, she acquired the CIPFA certificate in public financial management public accountants training.
ERIONA ELEZI QOKU, Financial Planning and Budgeting expert
Ms. Elezi is a consultant on Financial Planning and Budgeting. Until recently, she has been budget specialist at the Directorate for Financial Planning and Statistics of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in Albania. Before that, she has worked as financial accountant for the Economic Service Center Albania. Ms. Elezi holds an Executive Master in Accounting, as well as a Master of Science and Second Level Integrated Degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Tirana. She has participates in a range of finance and accounting conferences, as well as several international training courses and seminar in Albania and elsewhere in South East Europe.
MISO VASILEVSKI, Head of Budget Control Unit, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Macedonia
Miso Vasilevski is a Macedonian citizen. He has graduated economics at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, specializing in the field of international trade. He holds an MA in European Studies at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, focusing on the area of European international politics. He recently obtained the CIPFA certificate in public financial management public accountants training. Mr. Vasilevski has been working in the Ministry of Transport and Communications since 2010 in the Financial Affairs Department. Currently, he holds the position Head of Budget Control Unit, responsible for budgetary and financial reporting, budget execution control, drafting weekly and monthly reports regarding the financial liabilities, ex-post financial control, as well as coordinating the process of effective, efficient and accountable financial management and control.
ANDREJA JERINA, National coordinator EU macroregional strategies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia
Throughout the pre-accession period of Slovenia, Ms. Jerina acted as the National Aid Coordinator. She negotiated with the European Commission more than 30 financing memoranda and established national programming, monitoring and evaluation system for the pre-accession assistance. After the accession to the EU, Ms. Jerina was appointed as the Head of the Managing Authority for Structural and Cohesion Funds and was responsible for preparation of the programming documents for the period 2004-2006. She was responsible for setting the overall coordination of the implementation and financial management of the funds. Recorded absorption capacity of that period for Slovenia was above 95%. She participated in the work of the Council and the European Commission in relation to negotiations on the multi annual financial perspective 2007-2013 and 2014-2020, in particular in the areas of the Cohesion Policy and Enlargement, including IPA regulations.
From 2005 to 2008 she acted as the Supreme State Auditor at the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia responsible for auditing expenditures from the EU budget. She participated in several parallel audits on EU funds jointly performed by Supreme Audit Institutions of the EU Member States including European Court of Auditors. From 2008-2012 she was State Secretary responsible for EU Affairs including the enlargement process and accession negotiations. Until recently, she has been State Secretary for environment; among others responsible for implementation over 1 billion of EU investment projects in the area of environment and climate change.
Ms. Jerina currently works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, being in charge of Slovenia’s involvement in EU macro-regional Strategies, such as, for example, the Danube Strategy, Adriatic-Jonian and Alpine.
Application procedure
Application Closing Date: Sep 30,2014
*For the SPB project the costs of 2 selected participants per beneficiary country are covered by the EU funding.
