TCoP Workshop: PFM Reform Progress in Treasury and External Financing

Objectives: The main objective of the Tbilisi workshop is to offer an opportunity to the interested TCOP members to exchange experiences related to the topics on the agenda. TCOP member countries are at the different stages of reforming PFM systems and the workshop will offer a valuable opportunity for participants to share their opinions, and will provide a good impulse for promotion of the reforms. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss different practical aspects related to implementation of the donor funded projects, including the issues of accounting and reporting. There are interesting experiences in this area in TCOP member countries, and one of the goals of Tbilisi workshop is to promote sharing of good practices among the members.

Another important objective of the workshop is to familiarize the participants with the experience of the hosting country, Georgia, in reforming the budget execution processes and national treasury system modernization.

Date:  February 27 - 29, 2012

Location: Marriott Courtyard Hotel, Tbilisi, Georgia

Topic:  Integration of External Financing into the Processes of Budget Execution, Accounting and Reporting

Contents: Taking into account the preliminary discussions within the TCOP Leadership Group, and the hosting country representatives’ proposals, the agenda of the workshop will include presentation of the experience of Georgia in implementation of PFM reforms, with the focus on the issues of budget execution, public sector accounting and reporting.

Georgia has achieved interesting results in some reform areas and is implementing far-reaching modernization of the treasury system. The experience of centralization of treasury services accompanied by abolition of the treasury regional offices and introduction of internet based services for the clients is likely to be of high interest for the workshop participants. Among other clients, the treasury of Georgia provides services for the projects funded by external donors. The hosting country has also an interesting experience in the area of public sector accounting and reporting reforms. The ministry of finance of Georgia is preparing a detailed presentation to highlight all these aspects of PFM reforms in the country.  Live presentation of the information systems used in the process of budget predation and budget execution is envisaged as part of the workshop agenda.

More details on the contents of presentation proposed by the hosting country .

Along with the hosting country presentations, the cases of other participating countries will be presented during the workshop. Interested participants, willing to share their country experiences, will be invited to make brief presentations following the recommended format that will be circulated in advance.

The issues recommended to be covered in those presentations, will include: 

(i) Methodological issues of reflecting external financing in the budget classification and chart of accounts

(ii) Approaches for solving technical difficulties in the process of integrating external financing into the single treasury account (the need to separate donor resources, multiple currencies, etc.)

(iii) Examples of servicing donor funded projects through the treasury, and

(iv) Specifics of accounting and financial reporting as part of project management.

Experts will be invited to provide presentations, comments and conclusions on the discussed topics during the workshop.
Similarly to the previous TCOP events, the agenda of Tbilisi workshop will include a number of small group discussion sessions. The list of questions to be discussed during these sessions will be defined, taking into account community’s members proposals expressed in the process of the event organization.

In addition to the main themes of the workshop, the Leadership Group members will discuss during the third day of the event the issues related to the TCOP future activity, principles of community’s work coordination, and use of the new communication tools within the community.  

Concept Note

Preliminary Agenda  of the Workshop 

Target Audience: Specialists from the countries represented in the TCOP Leadership Group  will be invited to the workshop. It is possible, also, to invite several specialists from the countries which are not leadership group members, but had expressed their interest to learn Georgia’s experience in developing and using financial management information system. In conformity with the agreement on exchange between PEMPAL COPs, several Budget Community of Practice members will be invited to attend Tbilisi workshop.  The total expected number of participants is 45-50, including experts. It is expected, that the ministry of finance of Georgia will delegate to the seminar around 10 representatives. The format of the workshop will be very informal and aimed at stimulating the debate and encouraging maximum participation of the country representatives. The event will be facilitated by the World Bank team working with TCOP. 

Language: The meeting will be conducted in Russian and English (some presentations in Georgian) using simultaneous interpretation.

Contacts: Questions or requests for additional information may be addressed directly to:

Ms. Živa Lautar
email: ziva.lautar@cef-see.org | tel: +386 1 369 6136 | fax: +386 1 369 6244