The European Union today officially launched a two-year twinning project Support for Further Development of Public Internal Financial Control (PIFC) worth EUR2 million to enable the transfer of EU best practices, experiences and specialized know-how between the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of France and the Central Harmonization Unit (CHU) established within the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia, in line with the harmonization of Serbian legislation with the EU acquis.
The opening conference took place at the Palace of Serbia and was attended by the Minister of Finance in the Government of the Republic of Serbia Dusan Vujovic, Head of EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi and the Head of Economic section of the Embassy of the Republic of France to the Republic of Serbia Jean-Pierre Gastaud, in the Palace “Serbia”. The vision of the Twinning project and its future developments were given by the French Project Leader, General Secretary of the French Committee for Harmonization and Internal Audit (CHAI) Stéphan Roudil.
The PIFC Twinning project, whose implementation kicked off in June 2017, is a joint project between the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of France and the Central Harmonization Unit (CHU) of the Republic of Serbia. It is implemented by Expertise France, the French international technical cooperation agency. Its objective is to build modern and efficient public finance management processes at all government levels, expressed in a more transparent use of public resources of the Republic of Serbia.
It will specifically support the modernization of management of public finance system in Serbia with focus on PIFC, in line with applicable international standards and best EU practices.
The project will contribute to improving and strengthening existing organizational and structural arrangements with regard to the management accountability (financial management and control systems) and functionally independent internal audit (IA systems). Furthermore, the role and capacities of the Central Harmonization Unit, which is responsible for development and promotion of internal control and audit methodologies and coordination of the implementation of new legislation on management accountability and internal audit, will be enhanced by means of a direct transfer of public sector expertise and know-how.
The PIFC Twinning project will involve a broad range of stakeholders including the line ministries, governmental institutions, local self-government units and other beneficiaries of public funds.
Institutional partnership between Serbia and France will allow to further develop the Public internal financial control system within all the public entities of Serbia that will contribute to an efficient reform of the public administration and public finances, in compliance with the national PIFC Strategy 2017-2020, the EU requirements (Chapter 32) and international standards (INTOSAI, COSO 2013, IPPF of the IIA).
From the side of EU Member States, implementation of the project is carried out by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance and Expertise France. During the 24-month period experts from France, but also from other EU Member States, together with colleagues from the Serbian Central Harmonization Unit, will organize a series of roundtables, workshops, trainings, conferences and study visits in order to achieve project’s mandatory results. These activities will promote the exchange of knowledge and best practices between public policies actors.
Contracting Authority for this project is Sector for contracting and financing of EU funded programmes (CFCU, Ministry of Finance), which is responsible for payments, accounting, monitoring and reporting on implementation.
