Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Macedonia and Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands will implement a twinning project on strengthening state institutions’ capacities in internal financial control and financial audit in the next 24 months. The Project, amounting to EUR 1.3 million, is EU funded, and will be implemented in more than 70 state institutions on central and local level.

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– Development of a stable financial management and control system and independent internal control remain to be our priority within the reforms in the public finance management, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, said at the Conference, marking the commencement of the Twinning Project realizations.

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He added that Republic of Macedonia had already proven to build a public internal financial control system in line with the international standards and EU best practices. In 2004, as he explained, Law on Public Sector Internal Audit was adopted, and Law on Public Internal Financial Control was adopted in 2007, followed by adoption of new Law on Public Internal Financial Control in 2009 and the bylaws arising therefrom.

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Minister Stavreski underlined that the process of strengthening financial control in the Republic of Macedonia commenced and is being implemented through development and application of principles of decentralized responsibility of the management and establishment of functionally independent internal audit, i.e. development of all three components of public internal financial control – financial management and control, internal audit and their harmonization. The objective, as the Minister said, is to build a system to guarantee reasonable spending of public funds, as well as preventing irregularities, fraud and corruption.
Introduction of such system of internal control is in line with the acquis requirements regarding financial control, meaning development of modern internal control system in the public sector, leading to consistent combination of management responsibility and functionally independent internal audit.

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As regards financial management and control, progress has been achieved by the institutions at central level. The Minister pointed out that accountants were appointed in 97% of the institutions, irregularities officers were appointed in 76% of the institutions, Financial Units were established in 51% of the institutions and 42% of the institutions appointed Heads of Financial Units.
With respect to internal audit at central and local level, as the Minister underlined, 117 Internal Audit Units were established, 159 internal auditors were appointed and 55 Heads of Internal Audit Units were appointed.

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According to the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Simone Fillippini, the Project will contribute to increasing the confidence in the institutions on the road to EU, as well as to better collection of taxes. – The concept is very important in the decentralization process, aimed at preventing corruption and increasing transparency, Filippini said, adding that when the public has no confidence, it pays no taxes, and the Government should, in that case, undertake measures to assure the public.

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Project manager Jos Nouwt said that they have been working in Macedonia since 2007, and the objective is to implement that adopted laws and rulebooks arising therefrom. – Enforcing the laws in the country is difficult, because in certain moments there is a certain degree of resistance by the management, i.e. the managers, who sometimes want to avoid responsibility they should fully bear, all in order to avoid risks and mistakes. However, that is the challenge to be faced, Nouwt said.(MIA)

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