Finance Ministry twins with France, Italy counterparts

Agreement to improve budget preparation

The development of institutional capacities and reorganization of the Ministry of Finance is the topic of a twinning project, signed and funded by the European Union, on February 20.

The agreement is part of a grant to support reforms in the education sector and public finance administrations. It enables the two sectors to fulfill competency standards related to higher performance and better efficiency of foreign aids.

The $4 million project will develop tax governance, establish a communications center to provide quick services, outline a plan to protect information technologies in case of disasters, and help equip the center and lecture hall.

The Ministry’s General Director, Alain Bifani said: “This project aims at supporting the reform of the budgeting mechanism and overseeing its implementation through twinning the local Ministries of Finance and Economy with those in France and Italy.”

The project, which will take 28 months to be completed, will also analyze burden distribution. “It will reform budget implementation and supervision and develop the directorate of debt management,” he said. It is the first twinning project in the field of budget preparation and implementation.

The Italy-based Formez, an international firm specialized in training and support of public administrations, will be in charge of training human resources at the Ministry.