Name |
Topic |
Month |
Course on Policy Coordination in Promoting Financial Stability
Interactions between fiscal, monetary and supervisory policy-makers influence financial stability in EU member states and candidate countries. To better respond to changing economic developments, effective communication among all stakeholders is vital. The workshop combines lectures and case studies about policy coordination in promoting financial stability. Participants work in teams and simulate roles identified in the case studies.
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Central Banking
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December
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Risk Management Process
Risk management is a comprehensive process, supported by appropriate strategies and frameworks that are designed to identify, assess, treat, and monitor risks that could prevent a department or organization from achieving its objectives. In public sector institutions and agencies that have already established risk management and want to maintain it in order to treat and monitor risk, there is a constant need for risk identification and assessment. This workshop will focus on practical side of risk identification and assessment, with theoretical background of COSO system provided.
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Internal and External Accountability Mechanisms
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December
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The Role of Indirect Audit Methods
A well-structured audit program plays an important role in improving the effectiveness of tax administrations. In modern tax administrations the role of an audit program has extended beyond the mere verification of the reported taxpayer’s obligations. If managed properly, it encourages compliance and thus allows the tax administrations to collect the taxes more efficiently. Special emphasis will be put on deployment of indirect audit methods which go beyond a mere examination of a taxpayer’s books and records. This workshop will examine key factors that need to be in place when planning for an effective taxpayer audit program and will address the role of the tax audit within the compliance risk management process. A question of how to develop awareness and acceptance among those being audited in order to create a more favorable environment for voluntary tax compliance will also be explored.
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Tax Policy and Administration
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November
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Communicating Reforms
Leading reforms incorporates many risks. Alongside good technical proposals many other factors have proven to be of critical importance. Many reforms are not well accepted and understood by the public as they are not communicated properly. A complete strategic approach to reforms should have devoted sufficient resources and plan a good presentation and communication of the proposed changes. This workshop will therefore cover the manners of proper communication of reforms.
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Soft Skills to Support Reform
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November
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Working with Large Business Taxpayers
A number of tax administrations have recognized that large taxpayers are different from other groups of taxpayers, present different revenue risks and require different strategies to maximize tax compliance. This workshop will address the criteria for the assignment of taxpayers to the large taxpayer office (which factors determine a “large” case) and will consider current best practice about assessing the risks and the compliance issues commonly associated with large tax payers. The course will also outline benefits of cooperative compliance and horizontal monitoring frameworks for tax administrations. Experts from The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration will also explain how they estimate the level of compliance of large businesses based upon three elements:
• The level of transparency,
• The level of “tax control”, and
• The tax strategy.
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Tax Policy and Administration
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October
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Budget Submissions of Line Ministries
As part of the annual budget preparation process, ministries of finance determine the macroeconomic framework, establish expenditure ceilings for the different budget users, and instruct them in submitting their requests, i.e. by assuring that estimates are made in consistence with macro-fiscal objectives, and by challenging submitted costing of existing and any new policy proposals. Budget users’ submissions are also a crucial part of preparing strategic macro-fiscal documents, as, for example, the Economic and Fiscal Program (EFP) or Pre-Accession Economic Program that is assessed by the European Commission on an annual basis.
Budget submissions have often been criticized as being too optimistic or inconsistent with macro-fiscal forecasts. Such shortcomings have been linked to coordination and responsibility issues between budget users, challenges in ministries of finance’ guidance of budget users, as well as to budget users’ limited capacities in preparing their budget submissions, e.g. with respect to costing the fiscal impact of structural reforms. The Workshop aims at strengthening the quality of budget submissions of budget users (in particular budget-intensive line ministries).
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Budget Preparation and Execution
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October
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Financial Audit
A course aims to help auditors to approach and conduct audit of financial statements and/or audits of EU funds. Through case exercises, they will become familiar with principles and techniques in financial audit.
Financial audit very broadly comprises audit of:
• State’s or entities’ accounts or other financial reports,
• Budgets, budgets sections, appropriations, and other decisions on the allocation of resources,
• Policies, programs or activities defined by their legal basis or source of financing,
• Legally-defined areas of responsibility,
• Categories of income or payments or assets or liabilities (INTOSAI).
Emphasis will be placed on financial auditing principles, techniques, and how to understand accounting principles, financial statements, and how to review them in order to be able to give opinion whether they are free from material misstatements.
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Internal and External Accountability Mechanisms
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October
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Public Sector Process Business Optimization
Work can be thought of as a series of steps that flow through traditional departmental boundaries, intertwining with the lives of customers and service users. These flows are called business processes and their design, management and improvement are leaders’ main responsibilities. The aim of this workshop is to give participants sufficient knowledge of process management and improvement concepts so that they can assess and improve the main business processes in their organizations.
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Soft Skills to Support Reform
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October
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Latest Developments in Prudential Regulation and Supervision - Basel III
This workshop covers recent developments in the international and European Union (EU) regulatory and supervisory environment, including new Basel III capital and liquidity requirements, the new EU micro and macro prudential architecture, the design of crisis recovery and resolution plans, and improvements in the governance and crisis management framework.
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Central Banking
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September
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E-learning Course on Budget Preparation
This course will introduce the steps and processes for drafting a national budget: preliminary analyses and forecasts, submission of budget requests by ministries and other government units, reviews and decision by the executive, and presentation to the legislature. It specifically focuses on some of the recent trends and innovations in public financial management. The course is to a large extent based on the IMF publication “Public Financial Management and Its Emerging Architecture” as well as on the IMF Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management.
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Budget Preparation and Execution
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September
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International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS)
International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) that are based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and are adapted for the use by public sector entities represent the basis for introducing accrual–based accounting. This workshop will help participants to understand international financial reporting standards in public sector. It will discuss background, recent developments, related documents, a relevance of individual IPSAS, and demonstration of how to apply IPSAS principles to events that occur in public sector entities.
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Treasury, Accounting, and Financial Reporting
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September
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Strengthening Fiscal Institutions to Promote Fiscal Discipline and Long-term Fiscal Sustainability*
The workshop will examine the role of strong fiscal institutions in improving the quality of fiscal management and helping to ensure fiscal sustainability. The workshop will review good practices for a sound budget process (e.g. fiscal forecasting, budget execution and treasury management, and reporting). These elements, combined with sound management and reporting on fiscal risks, are key for implementing a medium-term orientation of fiscal policy as part of a medium-term budget framework (MTBF).
The workshop will also address different types of fiscal rules and their properties and discuss options for specific design features (e.g. choice of the target variable, escape clauses, automatic correction mechanism, coordination with sub-national governments). Finally, the workshop will explore the possible role of fiscal councils in strengthening fiscal performance by raising public awareness and accountability.
*These learning activities are delivered as part of the EU-funded Strategic Planning and Budgeting project. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen beneficiary countries’ capacities to design and implement medium-term macro-fiscal policies. Complete information on the project can be found at the website: www.cef-see.org/bcpdi/spb.
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Budget Preparation and Execution
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June
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Wholesales Payments and Securities Settlement Systems
The workshop covers the main developments in European wholesale payments and securities settlement systems, and their oversight. As a crisis can be also a challenge and a development opportunity for banks, the participants try, through discussions, to find positive outcomes of a crisis for their institutions or countries.
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Central Banking
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June
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Statistical Sampling for Auditors
This workshop will aim to address audit sampling, it will look into types of sampling techniques in audit and specifically will enable auditors to practice statistical sampling techniques, which includes attribute sampling, monetary unit sampling, reciprocal populations, and variable sampling. Through cases, participants will be able to apply proper sampling approach to stated audit question.
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Internal and External Accountability Mechanisms
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June
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Principles of Transfer Pricing, Methods and Recent Developments
The course will provide an overview of the principles governing transfer pricing and will cover the application of the principles and methodologies in practice. It will also discuss recent developments and trends in the area of the international taxation principles. The course will also include a discussion of how to address Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) as it has become a pressing issue for a number of jurisdictions. There are several studies and data indicating that there is increased segregation between the location where actual business activities and investment take place and the location where profits are reported for tax purposes.
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Tax Policy and Administration
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May
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