‘Over the past three years, RELOF has directly assisted six partner cities and municipalities and a number of locally owned enterprises to establish and strengthen their public financial management capacities by introducing and enhancing FMC and IA. We are highly pleased that nearly all local authorities which are yet to set up FMC have shown interest in establishing this system, as revealed by the study. We are planning to incorporate knowledge gained from the first stage of the project, as well as the conclusions of this conference, in planning for the second stage’, said Ana Jolović, RELOF Team Leader.

FMC is a system of policies, procedures, and activities established to provide reasonable assurances that the objectives of the beneficiary of public funds will be attained appropriately. The Serbian Public Financial Reform Programme, 2016-2020, also notes that comprehensive and well-ordered public finance is a precondition for successful reform and development of all sectors of the economy.

The conference was attended by officers of the Ministry of Finance Central Harmonisation Unit, as well as representative of other institutions, organisations, and programmes involved in public finance reforms. In her closing statement at the conference, Spomenka Wurzburger, Acting Assistant Minister of Finance, expressed her pleasure with the fact that the findings of RELOF’s research and discussions at the conference re-affirmed the information and data obtained by the Ministry of Finance and matched its activity plans for the upcoming period.

RELOF is a multi-annual initiative worth EUR 1.5 million, supported by the Swiss Government, that aims to improve service delivery for 330,000 final beneficiaries, residents of the six participating communities of Vranje, Sremska Mitrovica, Knjaževac, Osečina, Paraćin and Užice.