Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Finance on Fiscal Decentralization

Country/Locality	Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Overall project value (EUR)	169,000
Name of client	Ministry of Finance
Origin of funding	EU CARDS program, managed by EAR
Starting date	03/2004
Ending date	08/2004
Partner	Sema Belgium
Detailed description of project	Technical assistance to the government and primarily the Ministry of Finance on three areas: Assessment of municipal debt. The project has reviewed the current situation and the institutional framework for measuring municipal debt and arrears accumulated by local governments. The project has provided a detailed plan of activities required for assessing the local debt and highlighted solutions for managing local government debt. Review and design of municipal fiscal information system. Review of the current situation and the institutional framework of present accounting system and the related budgeting, reporting and monitoring practices. Assessment of the options and formulation of recommendations for the establishment of an integrated fiscal information system required by the recent decentralisation reforms. Development of internal audit system. Review the current situation and the institutional framework and appraise the options for strengthening the internal audit system at the Ministry of Finance and first line budgetary users and practices at major local governments.
Type of services provided	Professional and administrative leadership of three expert teams working on the project. Analysis of the current situation by meeting the Ministry of Finance and major stakeholders, visiting municipalities, providing assessment reports, with collection of evidences and data from various sources. In co-operation with the MoF formulation of options for assessing local government debt and drafting recommendations for introducing integrated fiscal information system and internal audit at various units of government. The analysis and recommendations provided the professional basis of drafting major EU funded projects in FYROM.