Members of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget, Mr Petar Smolović and Mr Filip Vuković, participated at the Regional Parliamentary Conference of the Western Balkans countries on "Strengthening Legislative Scrutiny in Western Balkans Countries", which was held in Skopje, the Republic of Macedonia, on 15 and 16 November 2017.
The Regional Parliamentary Conference, organised by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the World Bank, in cooperation with the NPC (Network of Parliamentary Committees for Economy, Finance and European Integration of the Western Balkans), was opened by the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr Talat Xhafer, and the participants were addressed by the Chair of the Committee on European Issues, Mr Artan Grubi, Senior Programme Manager for Europe & Central Asia at Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Mr Chris Levick, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Switzerland to the Republic of Macedonia, H.E. Ms Sybille Suter.
During the conference, MPs of the countries of the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), representatives of the World Bank and international experts, discussed parliamentary practice regarding: legislative budget scrutiny, modalities for improving scrutiny through greater involvement of parliamentarians in activities related to monitoring the implementation of budget policies, scrutiny efficiency, providing support in analysing complex documents, such as budget and final budget statement, by independent institutions and parliaments services, relations with supreme audit institutions, strengthening the transparency of the overall of the budget process, especially in the part relating to consideration in parliaments, etc.
Findings of the PEFA, i.e. the tool for assessing the status of public financial management, have been presented at the Conference, in the part relating to the indicator 18 – Legislative scrutiny of budgets and indicator 31 – Legislative scrutiny of audit reports.
During the conference, a visit to the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia was also organised.
