News

>The PEMPAL members are invited to participate in PEFA short questionnaire for updating the PEFA indicators.

The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program, launched in 2001, has created a credible and comprehensive framework for assessing PFM functionality, which has been applied in a large number of countries since 2005 - countries with different income levels, different administrative heritages, and in different geographical regions.

The PEFA Framework continues to be relevant and applicable in a wide range of contexts; however, after 9 years with only limited changes, it is time to update it. The PEFA Partners have no intention of changing the purpose of the Framework; rather, the update is intended to reflect the various developments in the PFM landscape over the past decade, strengthen several areas of acknowledged weakness, and extend coverage to new areas such as fiscal strategy, use of performance information, public investment, and public asset management.

The PEFA Partners are pleased to present the draft updated PEFA indicator set for public consultation, along with a note that uses a question-and-answer format to describe the background of and process for the update. To provide feedback — a crucial element in finalizing this important work — please complete the short questionnaire (attached) and/or provide more general comments and suggestions, by October 31, 2014.

More about the PEFA consultations can be found here.

Improving the quality of public expenditures has become a central issue for many countries around the globe because of its importance for economic growth and living standards. PEMPAL (Public Expenditure Management Peer Assisted Learning), a network of practitioners in 22 countries in Europe and Central Asia, was launched in 2006 to help advance public financial management (PFM) reforms and improve practices. 

PEMPAL is about contributing and exchanging different perspectives, through discussions and resource materials, in three official languages: English, Russian, and Bosnian. Its three communities of practice, for budget (BCOP), internal audit (IACOP) and treasury (TCOP), meet from time to time in events, study visits, and on-line. The World Bank, OECD/SIGMA, and external experts contribute global knowledge and act as knowledge brokers. Several donors provide welcome financial support. The Center of Excellence in Finance has since 2008 acted as PEMPAL Secretariat. 

In 2012, PEMPAL brought together 434 participants from its member countries in eight regular and five smaller events in 11 countries. Overall, an additional 125 experts and speakers attended these events. This compares to 481 participants attending one plenary, six regular, and three smaller events in six countries in 2011. 

Going forward, the agenda remains busy, and preparations for the 2013 spring events are in full swing. BCOP is planning a plenary to address selected aspects of program budgeting, and two study visits will discuss IT systems for budget planning and per capital budgeting in education. IACOP will convene twice, once in a plenary session, to discuss risk assessment, financial inspection, and quality assurance in internal audit. TCOP plans to discuss financial management and control in a plenary meeting, and learn from Estonia’s experience with public sector accounting and reporting in a study visit. 

The discussions among practitioners mainly focus on implementation and how to improve it, because implementation has proved to be the real challenge in the daily life of practitioners, more so than reform design and adopting legislation. Besides, implementation takes time and political will, which are often missing. Evidence suggests that exchanging experience about what works well in practice is what practitioners consider especially valuable. 

In 2012, discussions in PEMPAL addressed various PFM topics, including reform progress in treasury and external financing; program budgeting practices; risk assessment, quality assurance, and training and certification in internal auditing in the public sector, as well as relations between internal audit, external audit, and financial inspection; strategies for treasury modernization; financial accounting and reporting; and fiscal policy and measures to combat the crisis. Participants also learned from the experience of other PFM systems. Resource materials and a rich depository of national legislation have been exchanged and made freely available through the PEMPAL Virtual Library and Glossary of Terms. 

Promoting peer-learning calls for leadership and accountability. Each of the three COPs has been led by an Executive Committee that devises the annual work agenda based on the countries’ needs. The three committees are also entrusted with managing their annual budgets and making sure they stay within the limits set by the multi-stakeholder PEMPAL Steering Committee. Total event expenses in 2012 amounted to EUR 1 million. 

A framework for monitoring the value of PEMPAL for the participants has also been set up. It became a valuable tool for monitoring PEMPAL’s performance through a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators as well as success stories, and is aimed to demonstrate good governance, transparency, and accountability of the program (See Progress and Annual Reports for performance indicators. 

About PEMPAL
Public Expenditure Management Peer Assisted Learning (PEMPAL) is a World Bank–supported program that creates a network of public financial management professionals in 22 countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). The aim is to benchmark the PFM systems of participating countries against one another and pursue opportunities for peer learning, which increasingly understood to enhance knowledge transfer. The PEMPAL Secretariat is located at the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

About the Center of Excellence in Finance
The Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) was established in January 2001 by the Slovenian Government on the initiative of the Slovenian Ministry of Finance and in close cooperation with ministries of finance of other countries in South East Europe. The initiative to establish the CEF was framed in the context of the Stability Pact for the region. The CEF recognizes the urgent need for capacity development in public financial management and central banking to help countries of the region cope with the challenges of implementing much needed reforms.

Dear PEMPAL members,

We are sending you warm greetings of the  Season and our best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.

We are looking forward to new opportunities to work together in the year ahead! 

PEM PAL Secretariat

Deanna Aubrey has recently joined the PEMPAL team as Community Facilitator and will take up the one year position, based in the CEF Ljubljana, from early next year.  

She has 22 years professional experience in public expenditure management specializing in budget planning, preparation and execution.  Her 15 years at the national and sub-national levels of Government in Australia included contributing to the preparation of the Australian Government Budget and advising Ministers on policy options and recommendations in health, social welfare and mining related sectors.  For the last seven years, she has coached and advised Ministries of Finance for USAID and DFID funded projects in Kosovo, Afghanistan and currently Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

She sees the PEMPAL network as an extremely valuable approach to sharing, learning and progressing public financial management reforms and would like to position and brand the network as the lead peer assisted learning provider for the European and Central Asian region. 

“ The position of PEMPAL Community Facilitator is my dream job as it will enable me to continue my passion for learning and to use my public financial management skills acquired in Australia and overseas  to assist the PEMPAL CoP Leadership Teams, Steering Committee and Secretariat  to achieve their vision and mission. Outside of this passion I practice yoga to keep fit, enjoy good conversation, and entertaining people with my guitar and songs.”

Deanna will have formal contact details established early next year. However, she encourages people to contact her on her personal email deanna_aubrey@hotmail.com or + 387 62 807 533if they have any questions or if she can help in anyway.   As for next steps, she will shortly circulate a draft action plan for her new role to gain input and feedback and she looks forward to meeting everyone at the Plenary meeting in Zagreb.