OSCE Mission to Skopje supports training for municipal financial officers

SKOPJE, 19 May 2006 - A workshop teaching 50 municipal financial officers about newly designed software that will make budget execution and financial reporting in local government units more efficient and transparent started today in Bitola.

This training, supported by the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, is part of a project implemented by the Association of Financial Officers of Local Government and Public Enterprises (AFO) The workshop is the second of its kind, bringing the number of officers trained to almost 100.

The Mission has supported the country's decentralization, and financial aspects are crucial for the success of that process, said Philipp Stiel, Head of the OSCE Mission's Public Administration Reform Unit.

"Through AFO, we are happy to provide the local financial officers with a tool to follow the execution of municipal budgets and do proper financial reporting. This increases the financial viability and transparency of the local self government units," he said.

AFO President Evgenija Gramatikova added: "The training will contribute to successful fiscal decentralization. Our organization continues to develop the capacity of its members and inform them about all new legislation concerning the financial aspects of the local self-government."

Local governments have welcomed the software and the training, saying it will help them provide the Finance Ministry with better reports. The Finance Ministry, too, supports the software as it helps improve its monitoring of the municipalities' financial developments.