Chairperson of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget Mr Predrag Sekulić participated in the Regional Conference of State Audit Institutions and Network of Parliamentary Committees on Economy, Finance and European Integration of the Western Balkans (NPC), held in Tirana, Republic of Albania, on 9 and 10 May 2019.
The activity is organised as a part of the knowledge partnership focused on advancing financial oversight practices in the Western Balkans between NPC and the World Bank. The knowledge partnership was initiated in 2016 and supported within the Strengthening Accountability and the Fiduciary Environment (SAFE) Programme. The SAFE fund was established by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and European Commission with the aim of improving public financial management in the Europe and Central Asia region.
The two-day conference had five parts - panels, within which the parliamentarians and representatives of the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) exchanged experiences regarding the relationship of SAIs and parliaments; challenges for the effective external audit and financial oversight; global and regional reference points for external audit; consideration of the audit reports by parliaments and following recommendations based on the audit reports. At the conference, the necessity of preserving and further strengthening the operative, financial and functional independence of the SAIs was pointed out, as well as the need for the timely, and budget cycle relevant, publishing of the audit reports.
Members of the Senate of the State Audit Institution of Montenegro Mr Zoran Jelić and Mr Nikola Kovačević also took part in the conference.
The conference, organised by the World Bank and the OECD Programme Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA), has gathered representatives of supreme audit institutions and parliamentary committees in charge of finance and budget affairs of the Western Balkans countries (Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Republic of Srpska, Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo).
