The PEMPAL budget partnership network of the World Bank "Mutual learning and exchange of experience in the field of public finance management" promotes the exchange of professional experience and knowledge transfer of public finance specialists from the European region and Central Asian countries. This platform allows its members to develop options for solutions to common public finance management issues related to the budget, treasury operations and internal audit. The main objective of the Budget Partnership Committee is to strengthen budget methodology, planning and transparency in participating countries. The members of the commission are mainly senior and mid-level officials, persons responsible for budget planning or budget methodology/policy from the ministries of finance. The strategic priority areas of the budget group's activities are:
- improvement of effective budget management tools,
- increasing fiscal transparency and accountability and
- the spread.
In order to participate in the annual plenary meeting of the PEMPAL member countries organized by the World Bank's PEMPAL budget partnership, which was held from April 15 to April 19, 2024, including the city of Sarajevo (Federal of Bosnia and Herzegovina), employees of the RA Ministry of Finance were also sent to participate.
The main goals of the meeting were:
- to familiarize yourself with Bosnia and Herzegovina's public financial management system and IT support tools,
- to collect feedbacks on the new approach to strategic planning and budgeting implemented by the budget partnership and study the cases of PEMPAL countries in this thematic area,
- to examine the preliminary results of a study carried out by the Budget Partnership on the experience of program and results-based budgeting in PEMPAL member countries, comparing them with the practice of OECD countries,
- to get to know the use of artificial intelligence and other innovative tools in the budgeting process, which will be presented by international organizations,
- to study of budget transparency experience on the example of PEMPAL countries,
- to exchange of experience and collection of opinions among PEMPAL countries on priority topics for the 2025 fiscal year.
During the meeting, a presentation on "Adherence of strategic policies to budget programs" based on the example of the RA was also presented, after which discussions, exchange of experience and collection of opinions were carried out.
The knowledge gained as a result of the course will allow new approaches, new tools to be used to improve the efficiency and accountability of the budget process, as well as to improve the tools that will allow for successful fiscal management, to ensure fiscal transparency and accountability.
You can learn more about the materials of the course at the following link: https://www.pempal.org/events/bcop-2024-plenary-meeting .