Keynote speakers

Mike Driver

President, CIPFA, United Kingdom

Work Area

Mike is CIPFA President. He is a CIPFA qualified accountant and is also a member and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Mike has a portfolio career of chairman, non-executive, and consulting positions.

Mike’s priorities as CIPFA President are: championing cross-sector working and collaboration, in the UK and around the world; focusing on sustainability – from both financial and environmental perspectives; embracing the digital revolution and skills development; and working with fellow members and stakeholders, meeting as many of them as possible.

Previously Mike had a 42-year career in the UK Civil Service. He held positions at the most senior levels including: Chief Financial Officer, Department for Work & Pensions; Chief Financial Officer, Ministry of Justice; Head of the Government Finance Function, Her Majesty’s Treasury; Senior Responsible Officer, Borders Programme & Managed Quarantine; and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice. At the heart of Mike’s approach was driving forward the agenda to substantially strengthen the finance function’s critical role at the heart of government, ensuring better political and business outcomes.

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Delina Ibrahimaj

Minister of Finance and Economy, Albania

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Mrs. Delina Ibrahimaj was born in Tirana, on 23.12.1983. Since September 2021 she serves as Minister of Finance and Economy. In November 2012 she received the title of Doctor (PhD) in Banking and Finance from the University of Rome, Tor Vergata – Rome, Italy. In December 2009 received the title of Master of Science in General Management from the University “Luigi Bocconi” – Milan, Italy and Bachelor in Management and International Economics at the same university.

Mrs. Ibrahimaj conducted a series of trainings such as the “Training of Trainers” program, developed in the period March – June 2016 and trainer in the field of Anti-Corruption and Good Governance, organized by the Albanian School of Public Administration with the support of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Coordinator National Anti-Corruption, Italian government of Public Administration in the framework of the project “Support to anti-corruption measures in Albania”.

In 2016 and onwards she is a member of the Statistics Council, INSTAT, and from 2017 and onwards a member of the Board of Directors of FED Invest and a member of the Social Insurance Institute. Mrs. Ibrahimaj has a long work experience. From 2019 to 2021 she served as Director General of Taxes, in 2016-2019 as Director General of the Institute of Statistics and in 2015-2016 as coordinator for Financial and Economic Affairs, member of the operational room at the Prime Minister. During 2011-2015 she worked as an economist at the Bank of Albania and a member of the Board, Senior Financial Officer at Tirana Express, Tirana. During 2007-2010 she was general manager in Urban Distribution ltd., and in the period 2005-2007 she managed the Albanian Distribution Association, ltd., Tirana.

She is fluent in English, Italian and French

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Peter Japelj

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Slovenia to Albania

Work Area

Peter Japelj has been appointed as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to the Republic of Albania in July 2019.

He has been employed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1996. Before his mission in Albania, he held the position of the Head of Section for European Affairs within the Department for European Affairs. He has previously served as policy adviser in the State Secretary’s Office and RELEX Counsellor at the Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels.

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Jana Repanšek

Director, CEF

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Jana has served as Director of the CEF since 2017 and as Deputy Director from 2005. During this time, she has worked on or initiated several capacity development programs and projects in the fields of economic and fiscal policy design and implementation, internal audit, tax reform, health reform, and pension reform. Since 2011 she has led CEF’s strategic institutional capacity development effort that resulted in CEF’s becoming a globally-recognized regional knowledge hub. She was responsible for internal legal, organizational and HR-related issues that allowed for a smooth transition of the CEF to an international organization in 2015. Before joining the CEF, she worked for the World Bank in Washington DC from 1998 and before that, she worked in the private sector in Slovenia. Jana holds an MSc degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of London, SOAS. Her professional focus is on institutional capacity development, managing organizational change, public policy and strategy, public financial management, and international development cooperation.

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Speakers

Eugenio Anessi-Pessina

Università Cattolica del Sacre Cuore, Italy

Work Area

Eugenio graduated from Milan’s Bocconi University. His major was public management. He also holds a MA and a PhD in Managerial Science and Applied Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, Eugenio is a full professor of public management at Università Cattolica. His work includes research, teaching, and expert support to public sector institutions. He is also director of Centre for Research and Studies in Health Care Management (Cerismas), coordinator of Università Cattolica’s doctoral programme in management and innovation, senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and member of the Board established to develop IPSAS-based accounting standards for the Italian public sector. Previously, he served as the editor of “Azienda Pubblica” (a leading Italian-language public-management journal). His research focuses on public sector accounting, both in general and with specific reference to public health care organisations. Within this domain, specific interests include: international and national standard-setting, financial statement analysis, earnings management, accounting change, internal and external auditing, budgeting, and asset management.

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Eros Angjeli

Ministry of Finance and Economy, Albania

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Mr. Eros Angjeli currently holds the position of General Director of the Harmonization Directorate for Public Internal Financial Control in the Ministry of Finance and Economy. He has previously served as an adviser to the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure focusing on international relations and foreign investments as well as a member of the cabinet to the Minister of European Integration.

Besides his work in the public sector, Mr. Angjeli also holds the position of Chairman of the Board of the Mediterranean University of Albania.

In 2013, he earned his bachelor's degree with a major in Finance and a Minor in Political Science at Boston University in the United States. In 2015, he earned his Master of Arts degree at the London Academy of Diplomacy in International Diplomacy.

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Aneta Arnaudovska

Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (RAI)

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 from 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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John Baker

CIPFA Associate, United Kingdom

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John has led anti-corruption teams at Partner and Director levels in many UK Top 10 accounting firms. His clients have ranged from organisations including central government departments in the UK and overseas, sports bodies, UN agencies and the European Commission, through to major charities & humanitarian aid donors, plus industries including shipping, mining, property, insurance and banking.

John has undertaken a wide range of criminal, civil, disciplinary and regulatory investigations in the UK and overseas (including Eastern and sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South Asia). John sits on the Advisory Panel of Portsmouth University’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies and on the Editorial Board for the ‘Fraud Intelligence’ magazine. Before this, he was a Director of the London Fraud Forum, an Executive Member of the Institute of Counter Fraud Specialists and the Project Manager for the Attorney General’s Fraud Review Fraud Loss Measurement Unit’s Working Group. John is an Honorary Member of CIPFA.

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David Bentley

CIPFA, United Kingdom

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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Nives Botica Redmayne

Massey University School of Accountancy, New Zealand

Work Area

Nives’ main area of research and expertise is assurance, in particular the economics and production of assurance services. Her other areas of expertise are financial reporting and assurance, particularly financial reporting in for-profit and not-for-profit/ public sectors, assurance services market regulation, varying levels of assurance, as well as assurance and governance in public and not-for-profit sectors, with a particular focus on public sector asset management. Nives contributes to the development of professional standards, guidance and policies for practicing auditors and accountants in New Zealand by informing the regulators, based on her research and expertise in financial reporting and auditing. She is the immediate past president and fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ). She is also a member of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board and the New Zealand Financial Market Authority Audit Oversight Committee. She has participated at workshops and roundtables on the topic of recognition, measurement and management of public assets under the project “Accounting and financial reporting reform as a means for strengthening the development of efficient public sector financial management in Croatia (2014–2018)”

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Ian Carruthers

IPSASB

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Ian Carruthers became Chair of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in 2016, having been a Board Member since 2010. As a Board Member he led IPSASB’s work on Long Term Financial Sustainability and alignment between IPSASs and Government Finance Statistics. IPSAS issued during Ian’s chairmanship so far include those on Social Benefits and Financial Instruments. Having completed his second term (2019 – 2021), Ian has now been reappointed as IPSASB Chair for a third term through to the end of 2024.

After joining HM Treasury from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1999, Ian played a key role in the UK Government’s transition from cash to accrual budgeting and reporting, in particular leading its Whole of Government Accounts program. He joined CIPFA in 2006. As part-time Chair, CIPFA Standards, Ian has been involved in all aspects of the Institute’s guidance development activities, including leading its work on the Role of the Public Services CFO, and the development of the International Framework for Good Governance in the Public Sector in partnership with IFAC.

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Liljana Cvetanoska

University of Sussex, United Kingdom

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Liljana Cvetanoska is a Lecturer in Corruption, Law and Governance at the University of Sussex, UK where she also obtained a PhD in Politics. Her research focuses on (i) the role of the EU on corruption control in member states and candidate countries and (ii) the impact of corruption on gender. Her research and publications are geographically focused on Central and Eastern Europe. Liljana has also designed and teaches several corruption-related modules at graduate and undergraduate levels at Sussex. Prior to academia, Liljana has worked in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She is an active a consultant on corruption-related matters for various international organisations.

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Barbara Dutzler

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Work Area

Since 2021, Brabara works on the Good Financial Governance program in Zambia. She was previously a 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 the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Her research interests are fiscal policy, PFM, and development economics.

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Evis Fico

Ministry of Finance and Economy, Albania

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Mrs. Fico currently is an Advisor to the Minister of Finance and Economy in the field of anti-corruption, anti-money laundering policies, and legal matters, since November 2021. Starting in 2019, she previously served as Director of Cabinet and advisor to the Minister of Justice of Albania for parliamentary relations.

Over 16 years serving in the public administration sector at different levels, she has built well-established expertise in the fields of good governance, anti-corruption, justice reform, democratization processes, human rights, and rule of law. Mrs. Evis Fico has been a member of the Albanian delegation to the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) as well as a representative of the Regional Anticorruption Initiative, and the OECD Anti-Corruption Network. She also has contributed to different legal initiatives and governmental processes. She is also known for her work as an author and researcher of policy papers and as a former external lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Tirana Public University.

Mrs. Fico has graduated in Law, at National Athens University, Greece, and specialized in the master's program in Political Sciences.

She has attended postgraduate studies and a series of qualifications in Latvia for Law and Economics, in the Political School of Albania, an intensive leadership program of the Council of Europe.

With a wide range of knowledge gained studying abroad in different countries like Greece, Hungary, Belgium, Latvia, etc., last year she joined the European Public Law Organization’.

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Dritan Fino

Ministry of Finance and Economy, 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 in November 2013, as an 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 a 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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Sandro Fuchs

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland

Work Area

Sandro holds a MA from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and a PhD from the University of Zaragoza. He is a public financial management enthusiast, speaker and lecturer. His work focuses on innovative research and consulting in the area of public leadership and public finance. Core topics include financial resilience, accounting system innovation, financial communication, financial governance and digital finance. Sandro has more than 15 years of international experience in public finance and has worked in more than 30 countries around the world. He has an international track record with all major donor agencies, including IMF, World Bank, UNDP, OECD, Asian Development Bank (ADB), SECO and Sustainable Development Centre (SDC). He is a member of the World Bank’s Public Sector Accounting and Reporting Program (PULSAR) technical advisory board. Additionally, he is part of the Expert Pool for Governance and Peace Building Mission at the UNDP’s Regional Service Centre for Africa (RSCA)

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Simon Gill

Independent Consultant

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Simon has over thirty years of 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 organization 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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Andy Hardy

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, United Kingdom

Work Area

Andy is Chief Executive Officer of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW), one of the largest tertiary acute Trusts in the country, with an annual turnover over £850m.

Andy was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2010. For the six years before that he was Chief Finance Officer of UHCW, as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer from 2008 – 2010.

In addition, Andy sits on several external Boards including the following: West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN); Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA); Warwick Business School Faculty Advisory Board; NHS Elect; Beamtree Global Impact Committee; Chair of University Hospitals Association (from April 2022).

In January 2016, Andy was appointed Professor of Industry at the University of Warwick, and in 2022 awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration at Coventry University in recognition of his leadership and significant contribution to healthcare provision across Coventry and Warwickshire.

In addition to his Chief Executive Officer role, Andy was appointed as Senior Responsible Officer of the Coventry & Warwickshire STP Footprint in March 2016. A position he held till July 2021.

Andy has served as CIPFA President, HFMA President and Chair of A.U.H. Finance Directors.

He is also a Director of Albany Theatre Trust, Coventry; and a Trustee of ExtraCare.

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Noel Hepworth

Public Policy Professional

Work Area

Noel has vast practical experience as a public sector director of finance. He was a founder member of the UK Audit Commission. Also was appointed as the external member of the Board of the UK Treasury Solicitor Agency.

Noel was involved in the process of developing international public sector accounting standards as the UK technical adviser to the IFAC Public Sector Committee.

He was also Chairman of the Féderation des Experts Comptables Européens (now Accountancy Europe) Public Sector Committee.

On behalf of the then Féderation des Experts Comptables Européen, Noel managed the work of the European accountancy profession on the introduction of the euro across the EU, from 1996 to 2001.

As an independent consultant working for SIGMA, he participated in reviews of public financial management in several countries of Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. These have included peer reviews and annual assessments of progress towards membership of the European Union, in the area of public financial management and internal control.

He is an author of books and other publications on public financial management and was the founder of the journal Public Money and Management. He is currently a member of its editorial board. Presently, he is preparing for publication a guide to public financial management and internal control demonstrating the importance of its link with managerial reform.

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Ahmet Ismaili

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, 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 a dissertation on public sector accounting and reporting.

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Laura Leka

International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)

Work Area

Laura Leka is a Principal in IFAC's thought leadership team, focusing on initiatives in support of finance and accounting professionals working in business and the public sector. She was previously an Audit Manager at Grant Thornton, specializing in public sector audits in the UK, and before that worked for the Audit Commission. She also spent a year on secondment to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), where she was responsible for managing their public sector and business network programs. Laura is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Mathematical Physics from the University of Nottingham (UK).

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Stewart MacLeod

CIFPA, United Kingdom

Work Area

Stewart is a CIPFA member and worked for CIPFA in the International and Education & Training directorates for a number of years. He currently supports CIPFA and other bodies in the delivery of international projects on a freelance basis.

In recent years Stewart has been involved in a number of projects as Team Leader or as International Expert, assisting central and local government entities who are at various stages in the IPSAS implementation process. As well as designing and delivering capacity development programmes on IPSAS, he has prepared technical guidance documents to support staff implementing IPSAS, and helped develop local experts to ensure ongoing technical and training resources in-country beyond the project period. The work on IPSAS training and implementation has included countries in the Balkans region, as well as countries in Africa, Caribbean and Asia..

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Zorana Marković

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Work Area

Zorana has been working as UNODC regional anti-corruption adviser since 2013, in UNODC Regional Offices for the Middle East and North Africa (Cairo) and for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok) and in 2021 joined the Corruption and Economic Crimes Branch in the HQ Vienna. Zorana possesses solid experience in providing anti-corruption technical assistance and expertise and in designing and delivering activities aimed at strengthening the legal framework and institutional capacity of the countries to implement the UN Convention against Corruption.

Before joining UNODC, Zorana was the Director of the Serbian anti-corruption agency from 2009 until 2012 where she led its establishment and management and developed its portfolio following the national laws and international standards. In this capacity, Zorana worked primarily on preventive anti-corruption issues including the control and inquiries of asset disclosures and political party funding and electoral campaigns and on enhancing international cooperation amongst anti-corruption and law enforcement bodies. She was the head of the delegation and an evaluator to the Council of Europe - GRECO specifically on political party funding and integrity issues and was the national focal point and evaluator in the OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Southeast Europe.

Prior to this, Zorana was the Assistant to the Resident Coordinator of the US Department of Justice and worked on the criminal justice reform and anti-corruption programmes, supporting capacity building of the organized crime court, prosecutors and law enforcement units in Serbia and Montenegro on investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating complex corruption and organized crime cases; the legal advisor in the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, managing the training program for lawyers in the application of the European Convention of Human Rights before national and international courts and the senior trainer on governance reform in the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Democratization department. She also held different positions in her national government.

Zorana holds a BA in Law from the Belgrade University Faculty of Law and a certificate for practicing law before courts in Serbia.

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Phil Mason

Anti-corruption specialist and independent consultant

Work Area

Phil is an anti-corruption specialist and independent consultant. He was a senior anti-corruption adviser for the UK Department for International Development from 2000 to 2005 and again from 2010 until he retired from public service in 2019. He participated as a member of the UK delegation in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). He was also the key designer of the U4 anti-corruption resource centre (2002) and architect of the UK’s unique aid-funded law enforcement units to investigate and recover stolen assets in the UK originating from developing countries. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in 2015-6 for services to the UK’s international anti-corruption policy.

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Musa Modoi

Justice, Law and Order Sector, Uganda

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Mr. Modoi is the Advisor for Human Rights and Accountability at the Justice, Law, and Order Sector (now Governance and Security Programme), in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Since 2014, he coordinates over 18 Government institutions responsible for the administration of justice, observance of human rights, keeping law and order, and promotion of accountability, in the fight against corruption. From 2021, he is also responsible for coordinating 14 accountability sub-program institutions that are mandated to combat corruption in Uganda and promote accountability in Government.

He influenced the development and now implementation of the national anti-corruption policy and strategic plans, and the ongoing development of anti-corruption legislation on the proceeds of crime, witness protection, and recent amendments to the Leadership Code Act. He technically supports key anti-corruption processes, including social accountability and integrity promotion interventions. In 2020, he pioneered corruption risk and vulnerability assessments for Government institutions in the justice sector.

He is an Advocate of the Courts of Judicature in Uganda (LLB, Dip-Law, LLM), holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Tax and Revenue Administration (PODITRA), and has a tax law teaching background at university. In 2019, he qualified with a Masters in Anti-Corruption Studies (summa cum laude) from Vienna’s International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA).

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Narainkrishna PEERUN

Independent Commission Against Corruption, Mauritius

Work Area

Mr Narainkrishna Peerun has had a rich career in the police force, culminating as Director General of the National Security Service from 2002 to 2005. Mr Peerun has also served as Commissioner of the Disciplined Forces Services Commission from 2011 to 2014. Mr Peerun also reckons over 40 years of work experience in the field of policing.

Currently, Mr. Peerun is a member of the Board of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Mauritius since 2015.

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Elida Reci

CIPFA Public Finance International Advisory Panel member

Work Area

Elida joined UNDESA in 2005 as a Governance and Public Administration Officer, where she works on sustainable development at the intersection of governance, technology, and innovation. She is a regular contributor to several UN publications such as UN e-Government Survey, World Public Sector Report, World Social and Economic Survey, Interagency Task Force on Financing for Development, etc. Elida has served for over 10 years as regional e-government coordinator for Africa, leading Ministerial Panels on digital transformation. She has been advising high-level decision-makers amongst others on issues of public finance/pro-poor budgeting, institutional frameworks for digital transformation, enabling environment for innovation and so on.

Prior to UNDESA, Elida has contributed for 18 years to the development in Albania and Balkan region. She has worked as a former Director at the Albanian Ministry of Finance and a founder of Albanian Public Private Finance Institute, led the work on Albanian accession to World Trade Organization and EU accession since early 1990. She was part of the Stability Pact Initiative for Western Balkans (1999-2005) with Economic Table II as a senior regional expert, where she closely cooperated with several international and regional organizations, such as IMF, WB, UNDP, UNCTAD, EBRD, OECD, etc. During her career of over 30 years, Elida has been advising and working closely with parliaments, governments, civil society, and business communities on a wide range of issues from international trade and FDI, public financial management, ICT for development and innovation, etc.

Elida is a Fulbright Scholar, holding a MA in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University, USA, a Graduate Certificate in program management from Harvard University, USA and a BA from Tirana University. Elida has taught international trade and development economics at Tirana University. Since 2020 she serves a four-year term as a Member of International Advisory Panel of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIFPA), UK

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Gorana Roje

Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets, Croatia

Work Area

Gorana holds a university degree in economics and business. In 2006 she earned her MSc degree in accounting, auditing and finance. Gorana has more than 15 years of experience in public sector accounting and financial management. Her competencies are strategically located at the intersection between academia and top-level practice. 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 emphasis on public sector asset management reforms domestically, regionally and worldwide. Her research has been presented at various international conferences and published in scientific journals. She has hosted and participated in several workshops, roundtables and trainings on topics related to public sector accounting and public sector asset management. She also took part in the project “Accounting and Financial Reporting Reform as a Means for Strengthening the Development of Efficient Public Sector Financial Management in Croatia” (2014–2018) and is the co-editor of the 2019 Palgrave book “Public Sector Accounting, Auditing and Control in South-Eastern Europe”.

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Ross Smith

International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB)

Work Area

Ross has led the IPSASB staff team since February 2020, including the oversight of the staff team’s work to develop and deliver technical projects on the work program and the activities to support outreach and engagement with stakeholders on all aspects of the IPSAS and their adoption and implementation.

Ross joined IPSASB in 2013 and led the development and implementation of the IPSASB’s governance activities and the establishment of the IPSASB Consultative Advisory Group. Ross also oversaw the IPSASB’s projects related to financial instruments accounting and the development of the IPSASB Strategy and Work Plan 2019–2023.
Prior to joining the IPSASB, Ross worked for several years for a big-4 accounting firm in Canada and Japan. Ross focused on complex accounting and audit assignments related to public utilities, industrial companies, and financial institutions. Ross is a Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant.

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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. Before 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 audits. Between 2002 and 2010 he 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. Before 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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Božo Vuletić Antić

State Audit Office, Croatia

Work Area

Božo is a certified state auditor and holds a BA in Economics and a MA in Science of Business and Economics. He has been working in the State Audit Office (SAO) of Croatia since 1995.

Since 2012 Božo is the assistant state auditor general for performance audit. Since 2016 he participates as an expert for SAO from Croatia in the implementation of the twinning project “Strengthening of external auditing capacities” in SAO Albania, where he is responsible for reviewing and updating the performance audit manual, training of Albanian performance auditors, drafting training materials, delivering trainings, and conducting pilot audits.

From 2018 to 2019, he was a junior project leader in a twinning project “Further improvement of administrative capacities and external audit efficiency of the SAO in Macedonia”. In 2019 he was a short-term expert responsible for reviewing and updating the performance audit manual as part of a technical assistance project for SAO in Montenegro. In 2021-2022 he was also a short-term expert responsible for conducting the pilot performance audit “Improvement of external audit and parliamentary oversight.”

Additionally, he was the external auditor of EUROSAI for the period 2014-2016, period 2017- 2020, and 2021-2023.

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Nieves Zuniga

Independent research consultant

Work Area

Nieves Zúñiga is a researcher specializing in anti-corruption and integrity. In her role as Research and Knowledge Coordinator at Transparency International Secretariat (TI-S), from 2017 to 2020, she led the research part of a EU funded project on grand corruption and state capture in the Western Balkans and Turkey, and she is the author of TI´s report Examining State Capture. Undue Influence on Law-Making and the Judiciary in the Western Balkans and Turkey. Before TI-S, she was a researcher at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham working on integrity and anti-corruption in Bolivia and Rwanda for the EU’s project ANTICORRP. Nieves received her MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Essex in the UK, and she has a BA in Journalism from the University of Navarra in Spain. Nieves has more than 15 years of experience in qualitative research, policy analysis and training for civil society, international organizations, donor organizations and academic institutions. Currently, she works as an independent researcher for organizations such as Transparency International and the GIZ, among others.

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Organizing team

Kristina Bogdan

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 the organization of learning and other events; coordination of activities among participants, lecturers, CEF program staff, donors and other stakeholders; budget preparation and events cost management; the 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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Urška Miklič

CEF

Work Area

Urška joined the CEF at the beginning of 2019. She is responsible for managing partnership relations with the CEF stakeholders. Her responsibilities also include the implementation of the CEF communication strategy, including social media, and communication analytics. In her previous career, she held various positions in marketing and partnership management.

She is experienced in marketing and partnership management, project management and campaign marketing management.

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Jasmina Popović

CEF

Work Area

Jasmina is a member of the CEF program team and leads the thematic priority of public financial management – accounting.

She came to CEF in 2014, taking on the roles of coordinator and project manager of public sector certification projects in internal auditing and accounting, and a designer and facilitator of learning initiatives in the thematic area of accounting. She was also part of the EU-funded project Fiscal Implications of Structural Reforms. Jasmina designs program activities and facilitates their delivery.

Before joining the CEF, she was 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 the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia.

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Želimir Stanić

CEF

Work Area

Želimir is a member of the CEF program team and is responsible for the coordination and administration of programs, projects and other activities. He is a project manager of the EPSAM and contributes to the development of project activities.

Since 2019, he has been working at the CEF also as the coordinator of public sector certification projects in accounting and as the facilitator of Economic Reform Programme learning initiatives.

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Callahan Hager

CIPFA

Work Area

Callahan is primarily responsible for growing CIPFA’s global policy voice. Cal works with CIPFA’s partners and stakeholders, and leads on the Institute’s international thought leadership, including CIPFA’s international conferences and global research program, among other projects. Before joining the international team, he managed CIPFA’s external communications. Originally from the United States, Cal has previous experience in foreign affairs and financial services. He has degrees in economics and political science.

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Khalid Hamid

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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What you will learn

Renowned international and regional experts will guide us through a selection of public sector topics, including: 

• Efficient public sector asset management (day 1 – afternoon agenda)
• IPSAS and sustainability reporting (day 2 – breakfast briefing)
• Prevention of corruption in public sector (day 2 – afternoon agenda)

As CEF and CIPFA seek to build on the lessons learned from their 2021 conference, this year's sessions will explore the difficulties and opportunities that exist for those introducing changes toward a more managerially-oriented approach to governance. This year's topics are geared towards all levels of public management and political structures.

On the first day of the conference, participants and delegates will discuss challenges related to strengthening asset management through public sector accounting and public financial management reforms. Conversations will also highlight the importance of asset information for short- and long-term decision-making and accountability. 

On day two of the conference, participants and delegates will explore the practical effects of corruption on government services and perspectives from practitioners in the public sector. Conversations will explore contemporary issues, such as, does corruption result in more administrative/bureaucratic work? Sessions will also cover anti-corruption prevention programs and the role of technology and advocacy, corruption risk assessment and cultural issues – all through the framework of UNCAC.

As a bridge between both topics, the conference program also includes a breakfast briefing on IPSAS adoption, and its link to the reforms in the region with global practices.  This session is designed to raise awareness and understanding of why financial accountability needs to move towards accruals. This session will close with an awards ceremony for CIPFA students, who have successfully completed IPSAS training delivered in Albania. 

Who should attend

• Senior officials (policy makers) of finance and line ministries
• Public sector managers and directors engaged in public sector asset management processes, maintaining asset records and managing asset portfolios
• Representatives of supreme audit institutions 
• Representatives of anti-corruption institutions
• Representatives of academia for the area of accounting and auditing
• Certified CIPFA accountants and auditors
• Representatives of international development partners
• Human resource managers
• Politicians

Practical information

The conference will be delivered in English. The number of participants for the face-to-face format is limited, and admission is not guaranteed. Applications to attend the conference will be reviewed after the registration period closes.

No fee will be charged for attending the conference, and meals will be provided during the event. However, travel and accommodation costs will be covered only for a limited number of participants of the EPSAM project for the first conference day. 

Useful information

• Social media posts on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn with the #SpeakingUpForPFM and #CEFCIPFAconf22 (for this conference) and #CEFCIPFAconf21 (for past conference)
• CIPFA-CEF conference Supporting Accounting and Auditing Developments and Synergies, June 29-30, 2021, Skopje, North Macedonia – digital summary 
• Visual summary of thematic findings from CIPFA-CEF international conference 2021
• Research paper on the state of play and perspectives of public sector asset management in North Macedonia
• IPSAS Index Status Report 2021, providing an update on the global progress of implementing accrual-based reporting
• SIGMA thematic report on the PFM assessment for the Western Balkans in 2021

Partners

First conference day is supported through funding of the project Efficient Public Sector Asset Management (EPSAM) provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia - Slovenian Aid.