Workshop on Managing Spending and Keeping the Budget on Track: View of the Lecturer
On December 15–17, 2014 we delivered a workshop on “Managing Spending and Keeping the Budget on Track.” The workshop was funded by the European Commission as part of a joint IMF and EC supported project to improve economic governance of the Western Balkans. Edina Halapi, Program Manager at Delegation of the European Union to Albania and one of the workshop`s lecturers shared with us her opinion about the workshop.
The primary objective of the workshop, designed and implemented by the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department (IMF FAD), in cooperation with the CEF provided government officials with a framework to assess the level of vulnerability of public financial management (PFM) systems and to understand the interdependencies of controls during budget execution; to explore strategies for tackling problems if they arise.
Edina Halapi, Program Manager at Delegation of the European Union to Albania was one of the workshop`s lecturers and she shared her opinion about the workshops with us:
"The workshop on Managing Spending and Keeping the Budget on Track has covered key PFM challenges the countries are facing and potential solutions for good financial governance. The participants have contributed to vibrant discussions, presentations of their country systems and exchange of views and possible solutions related to treasury operations commitment control prevention of accumulation of arrears as well as arrears clearance, strengthened medium term budget framework and enhanced fiscal transparency.
On the path to European integration in the last years the Commission has put increased emphasis on strengthening economic governance and addressing public financial management reforms. The participants also learnt that the latter is a key element of eligibility for use of IPA 2 funds under the new instrument of Sector Budget Support.
A credible and relevant public financial management reform program and enhanced transparency and oversight is however not only needed for the use of EU funds but rather to enhance the quality of public spending, to increase the efficiency of the management of scarce resources. Spending and collecting taxes more efficiently will ultimately lead to more savings and revenues in the budget which can be better used for the needs of the citizens.
The organization of the workshop by CEF and the Team was once again excellent, the organisers really looked after all elements to provide support for the participants. CEF has demonstrated to be a solid training institution on PFM matters."