The conference will be delivered in English. Translation to Macedonian will be enabled for the face-to-face format only.

Faculty

Discussion on Managing Public Sector Assets will be moderated by Jasmina Popović, CEF.

Panelists:

Eugenio Anessi-Pessina

Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy

Work Area

Eugenio is a full professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. His work includes research, teaching, expert support to public-sector institutions and organizations, in the business or academic sector. He also holds the roles of director and Head at CERISMAS - Centro di Ricerche e Studi in Management, where he focuses on research, executive teaching, expert support to private & public healthcare organizations, also in the business and academic sector. In addition to that, he is also a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School, Dept of Health Care Management), and previously worked as a visiting professor at the University of Geneva and adjunct professor at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi

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David Bentley

CIPFA

Work Area

David is a professionally qualified quantity surveyor with over 35 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He has been with CIPFA since 1998 and in this time has become known as one of the leading UK experts on property and asset management within the public sector. David is Head of Asset Management within the CIPFA group with overall responsibility for construction, asset management and highways related networks. He is often involved UK-wide in the development of asset management practices, taking part in national working groups, advising central government and authoring asset management guidance for local authorities. As well as the above, David develops and delivers training and consultancy on construction and property, procurement and wider strategic issues to a range of bodies within the public and private sectors. Prior to joining CIPFA he was heavily involved in the management of corporate procurement functions within two large unitary authorities together with research and policy development for ‘best value’ at a strategic level. Previous experience included all aspects of quantity surveying including traditional pre and post-contract work, grant assessment, option appraisal and project management.

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Ivan Dionisijev

St. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Economics in Skopje, North Macedonia

Work Area

Ivan Dionisijev is a Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Accounting and Auditing at the University "St. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje, Faculty of Economics - Skopje. He has 6 years of work experience as a state auditor at the State Audit Office of the Republic of North Macedonia. The areas in which he has worked as a state auditor include the following: economy, transport, education, culture, construction, and local self-government. During his work in the SAO, he has attended several important conferences, in which he participates as a moderator of several workshops, among which the most important are: 2nd Young EUROSAI Conference, Municipal Audit Semina, 3rd Young EUROSAI Conference, and many others. He was part of a Training Workshops on Strategic Audit Planning at the Twinning Project "Further Strengthening the Capacity and Efficiency of the State Audit Office for External Audit", and has taken an active part in a working group for preparation of IT procedures for the implementation of the Audit Management System (AMS) within the project Implementation of the Audit Management System (AMS), realized with the technical assistance of the Office of Audit Chief Auditor of Norway.

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Suzanne Flynn

IMF PFM Advisor for Southeastern Europe

Work Area

Suzanne is a technical assistance advisor for public financial management in South East Europe and she has been based at the CEF since November 2016. At the CEF, Suzanne helps deliver learning programs related to her work. She joined the IMF eight 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 several Asian and Central Asian countries and worked with several governments in Europe. Her work is funded by the European Commission.

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Primož Komatar

PFM Consultant in several EU funded and the World Bank Group projects

Work Area

Primož has a proven record of several successfully led and completed reform programs and projects in the field of public finance management (PFM). He has gained over 30 years of general professional experience, of which more than 20 years in designing and implementing actions leading to the adoption of financial system reforms in compliance with international and European Union (EU) standards, regulations and directives respectively. Within his career, he also has 15 years of professional experience in the PFM reform programs. His former occupations also encompass developing EU and national legislation in the field of financial services, being a member of several legislative Working Groups of the Council of the EU, a member of the EU Commission Expert Group on Insolvency Benchmarking, and a member of the Advisory Task Force on the OECD Codes (ATFC), as well as corroborating the negotiators in Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and other free trade agreements in the field of financial services. Since 2019, Primož has been engaged with the World Bank as a Lead PFM Consultant, counseling the client's authorities on the PFM reform in the area of the organic budget law and related secondary legislation development. Primož studied economics at the University of Ljubljana, and, as a guest student, at NHH - Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen. He holds an MSc degree in International Economics.

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Gorana Roje

Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets, Croatia

Work Area

Gorana has more than 10 years of experience in public sector accounting and public sector financial management. Her work is focused on international and comparative public sector accounting and financial reporting, international public sector accounting standards setting, and public sector financial management, with a particular focus on public sector asset management reforms domestically, regionally and worldwide. In a period from 2014 to 2018, she hosted and participated in several workshops and round tables on topic related to public assets management as a part of the research project titled Accounting and financial reporting reform as a means for strengthening the development of efficient public sector financial management in Croatia. She was actively involved in developing a data model for upgrading the Central State Asset Registry. She has participated as a team member of several working groups referring to National development strategy CRO 2030 drafting and has been appointed as the coordinator for strategic planning of the public administration body, involved in preparation of long- and mid-term asset management strategic policy documents.

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Contribution from the audience:

Božo Vuletić-Antić

State Audit Office, Croatia

Work Area

Božo is Certified State Auditor and BA in Economics having a Master’s degree in Science of Business and Economics. He has worked in the State Audit Office of the Republic Croatia since 1995. From 2012 he is holding the function of the assistant state auditor general for performance audit. Since April 2016 Božo takes part as a short-term expert for SAO, Croatia in participating in the implementation of the Twinning project ”Strengthening of external auditing capacities” in SAO Albania where he was responsible for reviewing and updating performance audit manual, trainings of Albanian performance auditors, developing training material and delivering training, and conducting pilot audits. In 2018 and 2019 he participated in twining project „Further improvement of administrative capacities and external audit efficiency of the SAO in Macedonia” as junior project leader. In 2019 he participated as a short-term expert responsible for reviewing and updating performance audit manual as a part of Technical assistance project to SAO in Montenegro.

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Abdullah Almehthil

Ministry of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Work Area

Mr. Abdullah Almehthil is the head of Cash to accrual centre under the ministry of finance with over 16 years of experience involving; •Ability to operate financial management processes and ensure long-term growth objectives are achieved while maintaining high levels of performance standards •Consolidation of Financial Statements •Practical knowledge of financial planning and budgeting •Financial analysis and cost analysis •Financial policies and procedures •Familiarity with international accounting standards, their requirements and their application

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Discussion on Anticorruption will be moderated by  Barbara Dutzler, JVI. 

Panelists:

Aneta Arnaudovska

Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI), Bosnia and Herzegovina

Work Area

Before joining the RAI Secretariat, Ms. Arnaudovska was a criminal trial judge (1996-2006), the first director of the Academy for judges and public prosecutors of North Macedonia (2006-2018). In the capacity of director, in the period covered she participated in the development of the judicial and anti-corruption strategy reforms in North Macedonia. She has graduated at the Law Faculty, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje where she earned the PhD degree on the issue of the legal argumentation and the quality of criminal judgments. She was a member of the CCJE Working Group (2004-2018) and a Head of the Macedonian Delegation in the GRECO (2012-2017). Ms. Arnaudovska is an expert in the fields of judiciary, anti-corruption and judicial training. She was a part time lecturer on criminal substantive and procedural law at the American College and International Balkan University in Skopje, NM.

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Les Dobie

CIPFA

Work Area

With over 35 years experience in the field of anti-fraud and corruption Les started his career in law enforcement but moved into the private sector to specialize as a consultant in leading and managing non-law enforcement fraud and corruption investigation teams. His experience encompasses a wide and diverse range of investigation, forensic audit and cognate risk management assignments in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and abroad. Since joining CIPFA in 2015 Les has built an anti-fraud and corruption training faculty that specializes in the development and delivery of professional training programs for public sector investigators, auditors and related risk specialists from across the globe. Les is the current chairman of the “Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board”, an independent not-for-profit organization that sets professional standards, regulates and accredits practitioner anti-fraud and corruption training in the UK.

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Verena Fritz

World Bank

Work Area

Verena is a Senior Public Sector Specialist with the World Bank Group’s Governance Global Practice, currently working on Europe and Central Asia. Her areas of expertise include public sector and public financial management reforms, as well as governance and political economy analysis. She has led operational, analytic and advisory work mainly in East Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa, and Europa and Central Asia, focusing on PFM and HRM reforms, governance in sectors, and political economy and governance analysis, and chaired the WB’s Community of Practice for political economy for many years. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute in Florence and has published a number of articles, working papers and books including Political Economy of Public Financial Management Reforms (with Marijn Verhoeven and Ambra Avenia); From Form to Function to Sustainable Solutions? Reforming Public Sectors in Low Income Countries: New Approaches and Available Evidence of “What Works”, and Understanding State-Building from a Political Economy Perspective.

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Simon Gill

Overseas Development Institute (ODI)

Work Area

Simon has over thirty years’ experience working in international development and public financial management in numerous countries across Africa and Asia. Since joining ODI in 2012, Simon's work has focused on strengthening budget processes in fragile and conflict-affected states working with finance ministries, principally in sub-Saharan Africa. He has recently undertaken roles within the organisation as Acting Executive Director as well as Managing Director and is currently focused on supporting and developing ODI’s advisory services. Simon has undertaken a variety of roles within ODI including that of Executive Director and Managing Director. He is now supporting and developing ODI’s advisory portfolio building on his earlier roles as Head of the Public Finance and Institutions Programme, and Director of the Budget Strengthening Initiative. Before joining ODI, Simon spent 19 years working in senior roles at the UK Department for International Development, in public financial management advisory and technical assistance as well as a series of corporate roles, latterly as DFID's Acting Head of Finance after having been Head of Programmes in Tanzania. Before his time with DFID, Simon worked in PFM advisory and training roles for four years with the Ministry of Agriculture in Lao PDR, and five years with the Ministry of Finance in Lesotho. Simon holds a BSc in Economics and Accounting and an MBA and is an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

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Ljupcho Nikolovski

Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of Fight Against Corruption and Crime, Sustainable Development and Human Resources, Ministry of Finance, North Macedonia

Work Area

In his current role as the deputy prime minister of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, he is in charge of the fight against corruption and crime, sustainable development, and human resources. His political career started in 2014 when he took the role of the head of the Cabinet of the President of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia. In 2015 he was appointed as an additional Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of the Republic of North Macedonia. Between 2016 and 2020, he received a mandate for a Member of the Parliament in the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia, went on to become the Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Water, as well as general secretary of the Social Democratic Union and elected member of the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia. By profession, Mr. Nikovski is a lawyer.

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Carlos Santiso

Development Bank of Latin America CAF

Work Area

Carlos, a national of France and Spain, currently heads the governance practice of the Development Bank of Latin America, focusing on digital innovation in government. He is based in Colombia. Carlos is a seasoned practitioner with a deep understanding of development finance and considerable sector expertise in public governance and digital transformation in developing counties and emerging economies in the Americas, Africa and Europe. He is passionate about improving lives by strengthening governance, curbing corruption, improving transparency, and leveraging data and digital solutions. He has worked in management and advisory capacities with the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the UK Department for International Development, and the Office of the Prime Minister of France, overseeing since 2007 the delivery of over one hundred loans to over forty countries in Africa and the Americas for over US$5 billion, including policy-based budget support. He has published extensively on the politics of the budget and the political economy of public integrity, including a book on the political economy of government auditing in 2009. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on

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Edmond Shoko

AFROSAI-E

Work Area

Edmond Shoko is a pre-eminent thinker, who influences key decision-makers in Business risk & strategy, Compliance and Corporate governance. He is respected for his unique perspectives, his balance of contrarian thinking with measured judgment, and his ability to turn public sector business development insights into viably sustainable ventures. Edmond is a Chartered accountant (ICAEW), has LLM International Commercial Law (Cum Laude) and MBA in Business Strategy.

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Alina Mungiu-Pippidi

European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building & Hertie Schoo

Work Area

Alina is Professor of Democracy Studies at the Hertie School in Berlin and Director of the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building – ERCAS. She is the author of A Quest for Good Governance, How Societies Build Control of Corruption (2015) and of Europe’s Burden. Promoting Good Governance across Borders (2019), both with Cambridge University Press. Mungiu-Pippidi has consulted for the World Bank, UNDP, the International Monetary Fund, the European Parliament, the Swedish Government, and others. Her research projects have resulted in commons like integrity-index.org, europam.eu, and opentender.eu. She is also the President of the Romanian Academic Society - SAR and founder of the social media watchdog platform Clean Romania.

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Discussion on Leadership for Reforms will be co-moderated by Alastair Swarbrick, OECD SIGMA, and Natasha Ilijeva Acevska, CEF.

Panelists:

Dritan Fino

Ministry of Finance, Albania

Work Area

Mr. Dritan Fino, PhD, is currently Director of Financial Management, Control and Accounting Harmonization Directorate at the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Albania. He has joined the Ministry since November 2013, as advisor at the Cabinet of the Minister. Mr. Fino has been lecturing since 2007 in different institutions in Albania and abroad. His teaching and research areas relate to financial and management accounting, national and international standards of accounting, public finances, etc. Other professional experiences include the engagements as the head of the Public Oversight Board of Statutory Auditors, head of the Qualification and Certification Commission of Public Internal Auditors, member of Civil Servant Recruitment Committee, etc. In 2002, he earned the bachelor's degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Tirana. Since 2004, he followed graduate studies in Japan, and he earned the Master of Art’s degree in 2007, and a Ph.D. in Finance and Accounting in 2010.

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Ana Krsmanović

President of the Audit Council, Montenegro

Work Area

Ana graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Montenegro in 1999 with a degree in Entrepreneurship. She obtained her master's degree in 2007 on the topic "Impact of labor market regulations on (unemployment) with special reference to Montenegro". After graduating, she worked in the Republic Secretariat for Development, where she did an internship, and then in the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises. Since 2001, she has been engaged at the Institute for Strategic Studies and Projections, first as a researcher then as an analyst and senior analyst. Since 2009, she has also been engaged in the Ministry of Finance as an independent advisor in the Department for Structural Reforms, Accounting and Auditing. She has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UNDP, USAID Economic Reform Project, European Commission, Transparency International. She is the author of numerous scientific and professional papers in domestic and foreign publications in the field of the labor market, social policy, etc. She has participated in the development of over 30 domestic and international projects. She has participated in several professional conferences and study tours in the country and abroad on the topic of the labor market, macroeconomic policy and economic development.

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Hristina Lozanoska

Executive Coach and HR Mentor, North Macedonia

Work Area

Hristina's coaching experience comes from extensive professional experience, working on organization and people development, and she poses two internationally recognized coaching certifications. Together with her leadership experience as Head of HR Development in the Central bank (2013-2019) and President of the Macedonian HR Association (2012-2019), make her capable to work with high professionals and leaders in the private and public sector assisting them to advance their leadership style. Nowadays, she works as a management consultant, executive coach, creator and leader, and last but not least as an entrepreneur - owner of VITA INSTITUT for education, management consulting and coaching and founder of the first accredited Macedonian Employer Branding Academy. As an executive and corporate coach, she works with passion and energy, motivating and encouraging clients, teams and organizations to uplift their full potential and make desirable transformations. The unique approach for the organizational transformation she uses is through the implementation of HR systems and the development of leadership that will support and lead culture change.

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Amina Mulabdić

Directorate for Economic Planning (DEP), Bosnia and Herzegovina

Work Area

Amina Mulabdić is currently the Expert Associate in the Sector for the Coordination of the Preparation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Strategic Documents within the Directorate for Economic Planning of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has worked within this institution for the past 14 years in different roles including as Analyst of Social Inclusion Policies and Coordinator for the preparation of the Medium Term Development Strategy of BiH. Prior to this position, she worked within the World Bank project, the Economic Policy Planning Unit within the Cabinet of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers as the Entity Coordinator for the Monitoring of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper of BiH. Presently she holds the position of the Technical Coordinator for the Economic Reform Program of Bosnia and Herzegovina wherein she works horizontally and vertically on the formulation and monitoring of reforms within BiH.

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Discussion on Promoting Accountants' and Auditors' Learning and Knowledge Sharing will be co-moderated by Khalid Hamid, CIPFA, and Robert Bauchmüller, CEF.

Panelists:

Maksim Acevski

State Audit Office, North Macedonia

Work Area

Maksim currently holds sthe position of Auditor general of the Republic of North Macedonia. His previous roles included Coordinator of administrative and legal affairs at the Insurance Supervision Agency, Assistant Auditor General and Senior Auditor at the State Audit Office, Budget Manager at the Ministry of Finance and Head of budget affairs at the Municipality of Veles. He is a co-author of several publications on (internal) auditing, budgeting, internal control and fraud prevention. He also actively participates and gives lecture in these fields.

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Barbara Dutzler

JVI

Work Area

Since February 2019, Barbara Dutzler works as Senior Economist at the Joint Vienna Institute. For the last 10 years, she was a Team Leader at GIZ, the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, for Good Financial Governance, in Montenegro, Malawi, South Africa and Frankfurt. Previously, she worked in the Economic Policy Department, Austrian Ministry of Finance and as a lecturer at the Europe Institute, Economic University of Vienna. Barbara holds a PhD in Commerce from the Economic University of Vienna and a Master of Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Her research interests are fiscal policy, PFM, and development economics.

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Natasha Ilijeva Acevska

Senior Program Officer, CEF

Work Area

Natasha is an experienced project manager with a history of working in the development and international affairs. She is skilled in technical assistance, facilitation, management, training, and planning. An economist, she has upgraded her education in the fields of sociology and EU affairs. She has over eight years of experience in facilitating regional cooperation among public officials of SEE. Her interests are design of public policies in multi-level governance setting and fiscal relations, as well as structural reforms for EU integration of the Western Balkans and Turkey. Public institutions as learning organisations and leadership for managing reforms are her passions, too.

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Alastair Swarbrick

OECD SIGMA

Work Area

Alastair, Senior Policy Adviser at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, has over 30 years of experience in public finance and audit, good governance and international cooperation. He currently leads the Public Finance Management Team within the SIGMA program, supporting public administration reforms in EU enlargement and neighborhood countries. Prior to joining SIGMA he was the Auditor General of the Cayman Islands for five years, where he also held appointments as an Anti-Corruption Commissioner and Director of the Auditor Regulatory Authority. During his time in the Cayman Islands he was involved in supporting a variety of capacity-building projects with supreme audit institutions across the Caribbean. Before moving to the Cayman Islands he spent nearly 20 years working in public internal and external audit. Between 2002 and 2010 he was worked at Audit Scotland, where he was responsible for leading and managing a broad range of audit engagements, including the Scottish Government, and was the Director of the Business Improvement Unit. From 1999 to 2001 he worked for the UK National Audit Office in London. Prior to this he worked for the Scottish Government and the Accounts Commission for Scotland. He is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner and has a master's in Economics.

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Ahmet Ismaili

State Treasury of the Ministry of Finance, Kosovo

Work Area

Ahmet has been General Director of State Treasury of the Kosovo Ministry of Finance since August 2017, appointed with a 5-year mandate. His responsibilities include, but are not limited to, budget execution management, allocation and cash planning/management, accounting and financial reporting for the general government, and core financial systems management. Mr. Ismaili has over 16 years of professional experience in senior management positions of the banking, insurance, and financial industry in Kosovo. He worked for the Austrian-based insurer in Kosovo, holding executive management positions including CEO, member of the Board of Directors, and Committees Member. Previously he worked for almost 10 years for international and local banks, by holding different senior and managerial positions. Mr. Ismaili taught financial management, banking management, and risk management including Economic Faculty of the public Pristina University between 2007 and 2013. He is a certified senior local trainer and expert of the Kosovo Banking Association, including the programs on the European Foundation Certificate in Banking (EFCB) and the European Banking & Financial Services Training Association (EBTN). He has a PhD on economics at Pristina University, with dissertation on public sector accounting and reporting.

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Organizing and supporting the conference:

Jasmina Popović

Program Officer, CEF

Work Area

Jasmina is a member of the CEF program team and heads the thematic priority of public financial management – accounting. She has worked at the CEF since 2014 as a coordinator and project manager of public sector certification projects in internal auditing and accounting, and as a designer and facilitator of learning initiatives in the thematic area of accounting. Before joining the CEF, she worked for nine years as a consultant at the Pension and Invalidity Insurance Institute of Slovenia. She also worked as a project manager for technical assistance of EU Programs in the Slovenian branch office of a German company and as a consultant at the Accounting and International Department of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia.

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Kristina Bogdan

Event Facilitator, CEF

Work Area

Kristina joined the CEF at the beginning of 2011 and is a member of CEF’s Event Management Team. Her main duties and accountabilities are organization of learning and other events; coordination of activities among participants, lecturers, CEF program staff, donors and other stakeholders; budgets preparation and events cost management; processing of questionnaires. She is responsible for support to the Program Team in the implementation of programs, projects, and other activities.

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Robert Bauchmüller

Chief Program Officer, CEF

Work Area

Robert holds the position of the CEF Chief Program Officer since 2017. He has worked for the CEF since 2010, having designed and facilitated a range of regional peer-to-peer learning initiatives, and co-edited several publications that set the ground for the CEF’s ongoing EU-funded project on Fiscal Implications of Structural Reforms, and he is coordinating the preparation of a follow up action. Before joining the CEF, Robert worked at the Maastricht University as a research fellow and learning program manager. He holds a PhD in Public Policy Analysis and a Master’s degree in International Economics from the same university. His studies and research have focused on human resource investments.

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Natasha Ilijeva Acevska

Senior Program Officer, CEF

Work Area

Natasha is an experienced project manager with a history of working in the development and international affairs. She is skilled in technical assistance, facilitation, management, training, and planning. An economist, she has upgraded her education in the fields of sociology and EU affairs. She has over eight years of experience in facilitating regional cooperation among public officials of SEE. Her interests are design of public policies in multi-level governance setting and fiscal relations, as well as structural reforms for EU integration of the Western Balkans and Turkey. Public institutions as learning organisations and leadership for managing reforms are her passions, too.

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Jovana Koloski

Program Facilitator, CEF

Work Area

As a program facilitator, Jovana designs, facilitates, coordinates and monitors learning initiatives and projects in the area of public financial management, mostly focusing on the topics of accounting and financial reporting. Previously, she was engaged in a PFM reform project in Serbia, closely working with the Serbian Ministry of Finance. She has also worked as an insurance underwriter in the private sector. Jovana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economic Analysis and Policy from the University of Belgrade and is currently a Master’s student of Econometric Analysis at the same university

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Želimir Stanić

Event Facilitator, CEF

Work Area

Želimir is a member of CEF’s Event Management Team and is responsible for support to the Program Team in implementation of programs, projects, and other activities.

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Urška Miklič

Partnership and Communications Specialist, CEF

Work Area

Urška joined the CEF at the beginning of 2019. She is responsible for managing partnership relations with CEF stakeholders. Her responsibilities also include the implementation of communication strategy, including social media, and communication analytics. In her previous careers, she held various positions within the fields of marketing and partnership management. Her job experiences include marketing and partner relationship management for a multinational corporation, project management for a Slovene high-tech company focused on control system engineering and integration, and campaign marketing management for a digital marketing agency.

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Khalid Hamid

International Director, CIPFA

Work Area

Having started his career as an Assistant Auditor with the UK National Audit Office, Khalid qualified as a CIPFA accountant in 1990 and was promoted several times to the position of Principal Auditor. In his 30 years of public audit experience, he has held senior posts in South Africa and the UAE.

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Steve Watkins

International Relations Manager, CIPFA

Work Area

Steve has over ten years of experience working in marketing and business development and has spent the last seven years working within Professional Institutions and Associations, specializing in education, membership and training solutions. He has won numerous MemCom industry awards including Best Integrated Membership Campaign, Best Student Engagement Initiative as well as being a speaker at the MemberWise conference in 2015. As International Relations Manager at CIPFA, Steve works with Governments, SAIs, PAOs and other relevant public sector entities to strengthen Public Financial Management globally. Steve holds voluntary management positions at his local badminton club and theatre company and has an MA in Creative Producing from the University of Kent.

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Callahan Hager

Communications Officer, CIPFA

Work Area

Callahan is a member of CIPFA’s Corporate Communications team based in London. Originally from the United States, Cal has three years of experience in communications, including media relations, public affairs, strategic communications and copywriting. Cal currently leads on communications linked to CIPFA’s international, counter fraud and sustainability work. Prior to moving to the UK, Cal spent time working in foreign affairs and financial services in Belgium and the United States. He has degrees in economics and political science.

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Victoria Strachan

Lifelong Learning and International Marketing Manager, CIPFA

Work Area

Victoria began her marketing career in the professional services, focusing on the delivery of large Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and other government initiatives. She has worked in the insurance, biotech and construction industries and now specialises in Professional Institutions and Associations. She joined CIPFA six years ago, initially supporting its counter-fraud services and now focuses on CIPFA’s global professional qualification, membership and training offering. Originally from Australia, she has lived in the UK for 22 years and despite the weather, now calls Scotland home.

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What will you learn

You will have the opportunity to take part in discussions led by renowned international and regional experts on the following topics:   

• Managing public sector assets
• Fraud and anticorruption
• Leadership
• Promoting accountants’ and auditors’ learning and knowledge sharing

A panel discussion in each session will be moderated in two rounds (two sub-topics).

Recent IMF research suggests that public assets comprise a large share of the economy and their better management could generate additional budgetary revenues of about 3% of GDP. During Managing Public Sector Assets session, you will learn:

• What are the challenges of improving public sector non-financial asset management, possible solutions to overcome them and lessons learned so far
• emphasis on institutional frameworks,
• comprehensive ownership policy,
• information on assets for better decision-making,
• the role of accounting reform in asset management processes
• effective asset management plans and strategies ensuring utilization and maintenance of assets
• the role of performance auditing in managing public sector assets
• building Community of Practitioners in the field of asset management to create synergies between different countries with similar challenges, encourage inter-institutional and international cooperation, and foster improvements in this area
• What good practices do we know globally, internationally, and regionally

The discussion will partially build on the research paper on the state of play and perspectives of public sector asset management in North Macedonia, with some comparison to the countries of South East Europe and beyond.

During the Anticorruption session you will learn:

• Current examples of fraud and anticorruption frameworks and developments internationally.
• Linkages between the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) (Chapter 2) and the effective prevention of corruption including:
• Effective systems of internal control (including procurement)
• Accounting and auditing relationship to promoting anti-corruption and fraud practices
• Education and training opportunities to address fraud and corruption prevention practices.

The discussion will enable partners and participants to understand the interrelationship between anti-corruption and fraud measures and the fundamental role of internal and external auditors as well as accountants through the framework of UNCAC.

During Leadership for reforms session, you will:

• Get insight into success stories of a leadership as a support in the implementation of the reform
• Learn how managing public finance can be successful during pandemic crisis and post-crisis period
• Understand how change management bridges from technical skills and knowledge, through information technology towards leadership to support implementation of the reform

The discussion will provide an insight into leadership practices that can ensure successful change management programs. There will be an assessment of the current models for reform and assessment of attributes such as targets, accountability, and transparency of programs. Conclusions and recommendations will be put forward on critical success factors for sustainable improvements to public financial management.

The last session will connect all previous discussions through the glance of education and training of public sector accountants and auditors with the focus of the knowledge and skills needed for their future work, continuous professional development and building strong networks by creating communities of practice. During Promoting Accountants' and Auditors' Learning and Knowledge Sharing session you will learn:

• How different learning concepts and modalities can support both professions in gaining required knowledge and skills to increase performance and contribute to the implementation of the reforms

The discussion will assess the most effective methods for individual professionalization aligned to the capacity and opportunities available to practice the skills acquired through learning. This will include an assessment of organizational development to facilitate the enabling environment provided for the accounting and auditing professions to effectively contribute to public financial management improvement.

Who should attend

Invited are:

• Accountants and auditors of ministries of finance and line ministries at senior and middle management level
• Representatives of supreme audit institutions and other public sector institutions
• Human resource managers
• Representatives of academia from the area of accounting and auditing
• Certified CIPFA accountants and auditors
• Public officials whose work relates to discussion topics

Other panelists and participants will be invited to take part in the discussions.

Practical Information

No fee will be charged for attending the conference, and meals will be provided during the event. However, travel, accommodation, per diems, insurance, and visa application costs of the participants will not be covered.

Partners

This conference is supported by CIPFA and by the CEF - through funding of the project Public Accountants Certification Training in North Macedonia (PACT) provided by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia - Slovenian Aid.