Final Report: Strategic Planning and Budgeting

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LEARNING AND NETWORKING PROVIDED
Budget Submissions of Line Ministries
SPB activity 2.14
Description
The learning activity was designed to strengthen budget users’ capacity to respond to budget instructions, and
promoted a shared understanding of the importance of good macrofiscal frameworks, especially in the context
of preparing for EU accession. It explored key institutions involved in the budget preparation process.
Participants discussed different definitions of structural reforms, and the main issues with integrating structural
reforms and new policy initiatives in budget submissions. To reflect on beneficiary countries’ budget
submission processes, participants discussed recent budget circulars. Finance experts of the transport sector
in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania presented case studies on budget submissions in
their countries. In groups, they engaged in simulations of the budget preparation in a ministry of education and
of giving advice to their minister on improvements of the budget submission process, and did an exercise on
providing information about the fiscal implications of structural reforms in EFP/PEP reports.
Contribution to EU pre-accession agenda
Beneficiaries’ EFP/PEP reports shall provide realistic and consistent information on fiscal implications of envisaged
structural reforms. Shortcomings in that regard have been linked to coordination and responsibility
issues between budget users, to issues with ministries of finance’ guidance of budget users, as well as to budget
users’ limited capacities in preparing their budget submissions. By addressing those issues, the activity
helped strengthen the quality of budget submissions, and budget users’ inputs to EFP/PEP reports.
Beneficiary feedback
»Incorporation of PEP tables was a good idea. It gave participants a good oversight of how it works in the sense
of the Ministry of Finance side, and line ministries’ inputs.«