The PEFA Work Group held its fourth Video Conference (VC) meeting on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.  In addition to Georgia, countries that participated in the meeting were Kosovo, Montenegro, and Moldova.  

 

The focus of the meeting was to finalize the work group report.  The report was developed using the survey results, the case studies, information provided by the PEFA Secretariat, and information from the deliberations during the prior meetings of the work group.  I am happy to report that the group did not recommend any changes to the report. 

 

However, it was agreed that it would be good to give the other countries that have participated in prior work group meetings an opportunity to comment on the report prior to its finalization.  

 

MINUTES

 

REPORT

 

 

Friday, February 20, 2009

Ljubljana, Slovenia


Meeting Summary

The PEFA Work Group (WG) held its third video conference (VC) meeting on February 20, 2009.  The meeting was video cast from the Center for Excellence in Finance in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Representatives from the following countries participated in the VC:

Members of the Budget Community of Practice (BCOP) Steering Committee also participated in the VC including Ms. Nina Lupan, Mr. Nicola Vukicevic, and Mr. Papuna Petriashvili as well as Mr. Richard Bartholomew the Head of the PEMPAL Secretariat.  Also participating in the meeting from the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC was Mr. Frans Ronsholt, Head of the PEFA Secretariat.

Ms. Liana Skhirtladze, Chair of the Work Group opened by welcoming the participants and reviewing the meeting agenda.  The prior minutes were reviewed with no comment or suggested changes from the participants.

 

PEFA SECRETARIAT PRESENTATION

The WG was very fortunate and honored to have Mr. Ronsholt, Head of the PEFA Secretariat, participating in the VC.  Mr. Ronsholt gave a presentation entitled “Recent Developments of the PEFA Program.”  A copy of the full presentation is attached.  Some highlights included the following:

• To date more than 100 PEFA assessments have been completed with baseline report completed for 90 countries.
• The intended use of PEFA reports is to track performance on changes over time; prioritization of reforms; and peer learning.
• Similarly Countries have and/or can use the PEFA framework to inform on needed PFM reforms; monitoring the results of reform efforts; a comparing to and learning from peers.
• PEFA is preparing a report on the use of PEFA reports in reform formulation which will include country case studies.  The Secretariat welcomes and volunteers for the case studies. 
• Case studies were presented on both Mozambique and the Norway. Mozambique completed its baseline assessment in 2005, a repeat assessment in 2007, and will do a planned follow-up in 2010.  Improvements between 2005-2007 were made in revenue administration, cash management, and internal controls.  Norway completed its assessment in December of 2007. 
• It was noted that although the PEFA Framework was primarily developed for in-country use there appeared to be wide interest amongst researchers, donors, and governments to do comparisons amongst countries. 
• A Monitoring Report will be completed in mid-2009 which will provide trends in the use of the framework and an assessment of quality as well as provide input for the technical maintenance of the framework.

In responding to questions, Mr. Ronsholt noted the following:

• It is an individual country’s decision as to whether or not the PEFA Assessment is made public and/or posted on the PEFA Website. 
• To prepare for a PEFA Assessment a country should form and train a team of its officials.  The officials should be stakeholders in the project. 
• Country teams should do as much of the assessment themselves as possible.
• An assessment, whether done internally or independently will have greater successes if it has strong governmental leadership.

Moldova Case Study

Ms. Liuba Ivanciucova (Ministry of Finance of Moldova) provided an excellent presentation on Moldova’s experience in completing the PEFA Assessment. The first assessment was conducted in 2006 with the second completed in 2008.  Both assessments were coordinated by the Ministry of Finance. Having completed two assessments Moldova was able to evaluate progress in making reforms.  Overall, ten indicators experienced an improved score while two received lower scores. 

Moldova noted the following advantages of PEFA:

• It provides complex background information
• Identifies issues that need to be addressed by the government
• Tracks progress on reforms
• Forms the bases for recommendations for maintaining and improving scores.

Disadvantages of PEFA that were noted included the following:

• Some of the scoring methodologies are incomprehensible, with PI 3 and 25 noted as examples;
• Countries with IMF programs may be at a disadvantage because estimates must be more conservative.
• There is little flexibility in scoring when there is disagreement about improvements.
• Although indicators D1-D3 are for donors they still affect the country’s image. 

The main achievements in Moldova were as follows:

• Budget formulation was improved though revisions to the budget calendar and more consistency between the budget and the Medium term plan.
• Internal auditing
• Chart of accounts and budget classifications
• Single Treasury Account.
• Improved treasury operations.

PEFA Surveys

At the time of the meeting it was reported that only three completed surveys had been received.  (However four additional surveys were received during the meeting).  A summary of the survey results will be distributed shortly. 


Next Steps

Ms. Skhirtladze closed the meeting by identifying the following as next steps:

Completion of case studies

• Circulation of a proposed outline for the WG report
• Circulation of survey results to the WG for comments.
• Drafting of the WG report

The next Work Group meeting will focus on finalizing the report.

The BCOP Executive Committee (EC) met in Ljubljana, Slovenia from February 19 to 21, 2009.

Highlights of the meeting include:

• A revised BCOP Action Plan for 2009.  Please note the upcoming events, especially the OECD SBO meeting in St. Petersburg from June 25 to 26. This will be the best opportunity for BCOP members to see and talk with each other during 2009. Senior Budget Officers will soon be invited to come to this event.  Please be sure to attend.
• Valentyna Doletska from Ukraine was elected 3rd Vice Chair. Samat Kiljiev became 2nd Vice Chair. Maksim Ermolovich is 1st Vice Chair. Papuna Petriashvili became the Chair for 2009.
• The Rules of BCOP were changed to allow all previous Chairs to remain on the Executive Committee. Also, each ministry is requested to appoint a representative to the Executive Committee if your ministry is not already represented. This means that Uzbekistan, Armenia, Bosnia, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo are invited to appoint new representatives to the Executive Committee. Rano Zabirova from Tajikistan was the first person to join the EC under this new rule.
• The EC joined in a video conference and other activities with BCOP's PEFA Working Group (PWG), which has been exploring this topic for several months.  Separate reports are available on the web pages about the PWG.
• Excellent presentations were given in Russian on the experiences of Armenia's program budget efforts (by Suren Pohgosyan and Mark Worledge); and Moldova's experiences with MTEF (by Natalia Sclearuc). The presentations were followed by additional member discussions.
• The EC set aside travel money for ministry staff to attend the CEF training seminar on MTEF in April. This seminar will be delivered in English only. The allocation will only pay for the first 4 or 5 persons to travel to Ljubljana.  Ministries should consider sending staff at ministry expense.

 

2008-2009 BCoP Action Plan