EU funded project improves transparency of taxpayer’s money

TIRANA, July 9 – The 1 million euro EU-funded project on Public Internal Financial Control has come to a successful end, the EC Delegation said in a statement. Building on a previous EU assistance in the area, this project has improved the capacities of the Albanian government to manage expenditure of the state budget in a proper, transparent and timely way.
Transparency in the use of taxpayers’ money by state institutions is a requirement of democratic governance. A strong public internal financial control system is, therefore fundamental for monitoring how the public money is being spent.
Albania’s transition to a functional democracy and free market has heightened the need to establish a strong system of accountability of public finances and make sure that the taxes levied for the delivery of public services do not go astray.
In response to Albania’s needs in this area, and in light of its future, the Union has been constantly supporting public finance reform in Albania towards EU and international standards. In the past seven years, 6 million euros have been granted by the EU to assist this reform in Albania.
The PIFC project in particular supported the technical competence of Albanian financial management, control and audit bodies, the development of regulations and guidelines based on managerial accountability, raising managers’ awareness of PIFC, enhancing the skills of auditors in specialized areas such as financial audits, systems-based IT audit, and performance audit, and preparing legislation governing public internal financial control. This project has contributed to two very important laws, the law on financial management and control, and amendments to the Internal Audit Law, which have opened the way to better accountability and better management of public funds.
During the closing ceremony, the responsible Head of Operations of the Delegation of the European Union to Albania, Mr Aneil Singh emphasised that “this project has helped Albanian government to move to EU standards and best practice that is applied in other EU member states.” Mr. Singh went on to underline that “a good Public Financial Control system is essential in order to reassure the Albanian citizens that public money is being spent wisely.”
PIFC II started in August 2008 and was implemented by the National Audit Office (UK) together with its partner, the Polish Ministry of Finance over a period of 23 months.