Skopje, 29th April 2015 (MIA) – Macedonia has achieved significant progress in the area of public internal financial control, however, further implementation thereof is required in the coming period, all to the end for Macedonia to attain the level of the countries in the region, which are EU Member States, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, underlined at today’s Conference on Public Internal Financial Control.
At the Conference, at which Public Internal Financial Control Strategy for the coming medium term was presented, Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that a lot has been achieved so far, i.e. legal and institutional framework has been established, number of internal audit units increased by six times, in particular from the previous 24 units, today there are 150 units put in place at central and local level. Around 70% of the institutions at central and local level have established independent financial affairs units pursuant to the Public Internal Financial Control Law.
– In the past year, Financial Inspection Department was also established within the Ministry of Finance, being one more segment falling within the activities aimed at improved public finance management. I am confident that the enthusiasm and the quality of the Financial Inspection Department staff will contribute to realizing the goal, that being for the Republic of Macedonia to be example of good public finance management, Stavreski said.
In order to achieve this, according to Stavreski, external control is also important, as well as for the Parliament to respectively monitor the budget and its execution.
– The coming period encompasses the stage in which the tasks ahead of us are not any easier than the previous ones. We are coming to a stage of further implementation for all that we have invested time in, so as to prepare and be trained, as well as to gain experience. It does not mean that we have not being doing this so far, however now we need to get more serious in making the step forward, Stavreski said, adding that joint engagement of all involved parties can lead to both progress and Macedonia reaching the level of the successful countries in the region.
Three-year Internal Financial Control Strategy provides for the framework of the reforms to be undertaken in the coming period.