Final Report - European Commission - Europa

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56 Evaluation of EC Country Strategy: Albania 18. The EC should support an expansion of the role of civil society in monitoring the provision of government services and public expenditure. A key constraint of Albanian civil society is the lack of pressure on government to improve services and control corruption. Improving aid coordination practices 19. The EC should support a joint approach to budget support and sector wide strategies. Instead of merely seeking to avoid overlaps, government and donors should jointly formulate sector-wide strategies in overall budget support and in key sectors such as transport, health, education, agriculture and the environment. The objective should be for donors to provide joint programme funding on a sectoral basis, rather than funding their own projects. 20. The EC should participate in the consultations for t the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy and support the Medium Term Expenditure Framework process and the centralisation of budget planning in the Ministry of Finance. The MTEF is the appropriate vehicle for integrating external assistance with domestic public resources in a consistent, comprehensive and strategic expenditure framework. If the PIP continues at all, it must be fully integrated into the budget, as proposed by the Delegation. Support to MoECT (in relation to expenditure planning) should be phased out. 21. EC should only provide institutional support to Government departments as part of joint pools for technical assistance. TA should not be linked to individual donors but should be part of a comprehensive institutional support approach supported jointly by donors. 22. PIU and PMUs working exclusively for individual donors inside government departments should be phased out as part of a wider reform of government structures under a public administration reform programme and the move towards sector wide programmes (supported by many donors). See also recommendation on the CFCU below. Improving EC resources and procedures 23. Accountability and Service Standards. The division of responsibilities between <strong>Commission</strong> staff in Brussels and Albania should be clearly specified. Individuals should then be held accountable for the quality and timeliness of their work. Both Headquarters and the Delegation should adopt a clear, written and binding statement of service standards applicable to the processing of project documentation. A summary guide of CARDS procedures for Albanian staff should be produced. 24. Principal Authorising Officer role should be given to a senior civil servant. The PAO role should be a technical, non-political role. 25. Reform of Phare implementation and the possible establishment of a CFCU must be carefully and transparently discussed with other donors and the Government. Lessons from the failure of the Central Financing and Contracting Unit in the FYR of Macedonia should be studied. It is also important to avoid setting up a special unit inside the government dedicated only to EC interventions. If created, the CFCU should therefore be part of a larger unit with responsibility for all donors. Any EC-specific unit should be external to government, managed by private contractors, and audited annually. 26. Improvements in Delegation management and organisation. - instead of each advisor having a “portfolio” of individual projects, there should be much greater use of teamwork and cross-cutting working practices. Public administration reform, for example, should be seen as a cross-cutting issue, applying to the Ministry of Public Works just as much as to DoPA.
- the Delegation appears over-centralised and hierarchical. Individual advisors should be given substantially greater autonomy and decision-making powers, and be held accountable for the results. - The Delegation should strengthen its resources for strategic and economic analysis. Economists should be recruited for the Albania programme both at the Delegation and Headquarters. Technical support from other DGs in the <strong>Commission</strong> (e.g. for example DG Development on programming and sector wide approaches) is also recommended. 27. Formal and transparent investigation of reported past financial irregularities. As described, poor implementation is central to the low impact of the EC programme. The financial irregularities identified in the reviews commissioned by the Delegation should be investigated by Headquarters or externally (Court of Auditors). 28. Cooperation between Delegation and Headquarters. Poor cooperation between Delegation and Headquarters is a central issue identified by this Evaluation affecting past and future programme impact. Management action to improve cooperation is required. 29. Monitoring, evaluation and audits. • Monitoring and assessment reports should continue, but should be shorter and more focused on strategic issues (e.g. a move towards the TACIS model should be avoided). It should also identify more clearly the actors responsible for poor implementation. To increase transparency, reports should be made public. • Systematic and independent evaluations of the Phare programme and budget support should be carried out (only Delegation commissioned ad-hoc reviews have been carried out). An independent evaluation of the Customs programme is especially needed. • EC programmes should be rigorously and systematically audited (when necessary by internationally recognised auditors). Sanctions should be applied in cases of maladministration.
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Evaluation of EC Country Strategy:
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Preface The Albania Country Strateg
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i Executive summary This is the exe
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Executive summary iii civil society
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Executive summary v prioritises EU
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Executive summary vii 50. The EC sh
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1 1 Relevance of the strategy The f
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Chapter 1 Relevance of the strategy
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Final Report - European Commission - Europa

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