Mr. Schroeder said that the results achieved in this project strongly support the reform of the public administration in BiH as one of the milestones in the country’s European integration process, and  emphasized that further steps must be taken to contribute to the EU efforts in this area, with active engagement and efficient cooperation of all those involved. 

The project whose completion was marked at this conference has contributed to reforming and streamlining the public administration of the country in order to increase transparency and efficiency in the spending of public funds. Since May 2010 the project has produced noteworthy results and laid the foundations for further reforms of the system, including assistance provided for drafting legislation and capacity building in Internal Audit and Financial Management and Control, as well as training provided for 220 civil servants from all levels of government.

“Public Internal Financial Control helps to prevent misuse of public funds through abuse of power or position. Its underlying principles are good governance, transparency, and accountability. Public Internal Financial Control aims at ensuring that taxpayers are getting value for money, something that is particularly important in times of financial crises when public funds are scarce!" said Mr. Schroeder.

Cooperation with the EU in this field is a contractual commitment from the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It foresees the introduction of PIFC, as a tool that ensures sound financial management and control at BiH State level, entity and lower levels of authority. This includes in particular the development of internal financial control in public sector, including financial management and supervision, functionally independent internal audit and independent systems of external audit and adoption of appropriate legislation.

“In spite of several challenges that remain to be addressed, the project team expects a high degree of sustainability of the results achieved, since cooperation of the beneficiaries was outstanding and motivation for the reform process was extremely high”, said Project Team Leader Ilse Schuster, pointing out that “Implementing EU best practice in financial management is a cornerstone for future economic growth“.

EU funded this project in the amount of 1,117.080 Euro from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).The project was implemented by a consortium led by the PKF Accountants & business advisers from UK.

Source: Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina