Completed Ceremony Marking the Award of Expert Support for 33 Local Self-Governments Within the EU Exchange 6 Programme

The ceremony on the occasion of awarding expert support to 33 local self-governments (LSGs) within the EU Exchange 6 Programme, took place June 16^th, 2023 in Belgrade, with the participation of more than 60 representatives of LSGs, state and partner institutions, as well as the EU Delegation in Serbia.

In his address, Mr Sasa Stevanovic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, indicated that the Ministry recognized the importance of reinforcing local budgets. He underlined that since the beginning of the year, consistency in the application of the budgeting instructions issued by the Minister of Finance is being particularly monitored. New set of fiscal rules defined in cooperation with the IMF, requires additional attention, whereby each LSG is to be considered as directly affecting the final fiscal result of the general state.

"We focused on monitoring the developments in LSGs, how budgets are planned, etc., while on the other hand, we aimed to adjust requirements to everyday practice, and to arrange regulations so to facilitate for you in LSGs the preparation of budget and planning of its execution", said Stevanovic. He added that e.g., the deadlines for submission of requests to the Ministry by the LSGs for exceeding the deficit have been recently pushed from May to September of a calendar year, which is a more suitable timing for LSGs to review the necessary corrections in terms of deficit for the current year, upon completing the reporting on budget execution for the previous year. The State Secretary continued by emphasizing the particular significance of support in the area of internal financial control featuring the set of rules established as tools for managers, a preventive mechanism that ensures the legal compliance and efficiency of LSG operations, but also as a guarantee of managerial accountability.

Bojana Tosic, Director of the Public Policy Secretariat congratulated LSG representatives that their towns and municipalities were selected in the second round of the Programme to receive key support in the field of planning system implementation, notably through preparation of development and mid-term plans.

„I invite you to use this kind of direct support optimally, as a mentoring assistance and to obtain the most out of what you will receive in the next year for your local governments", said Mrs Tosic. She added that this particularly applies to the analytical part of the work, but also to other procedures that lead to fact-based decision-making, which is at the very core of reforming public administration. Tosic pointed out the importance of prioritization in the elaboration of LSG development plans and the necessity to plan realistically, i.e., in proportion to the available resources, which comes out most concretely in mid-term plans. She reminded that the development plan of AP Vojvodina was recently adopted, and emphasised the transparency and comprehensiveness of the undertaken consultative process in this respect. Furtheron, importance of the fact that the work was launched on elaborating the Development Plan of the Republic of Serbia was spelled out, as the umbrella national planning document, for which the adoption of the Regulation will follow in the upcoming days, to regulate the drafting process. Towns and municipalities were therefore invited to actively participate along the consultative process underlying the elaboration of this document.

Martin Klaucke, Head of Operations Section II at the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia, pointed to the importance of local self-government in Serbia and underlined its key role in reform processes. He underlined that the EU backs-up such importance of LSG through cooperation projects intended to towns and municipalities, whereby the continuance of the Exchange Programme itself, as well as that of the EU PRO Programme, the cross-border cooperation programmes, support for the improvement of local human resources management, etc., witnesses such commitment.

„Local self-governments are the closest to the citizens, they provide them with services, they are the ones who work on creating policies at the local level, implement them, and therefore are responsible for local socio-economic development. It is therefore a great pleasure that we can cooperate with you“, said Klaucke. He assessed the implementation of support through SCTM as particularly adequate for local governments, considering the organization's mandate, professionalism and sustainability of the solutions implemented. As concerns the support related to planning and budgeting, he emphasized the potential for involving the public in decision-making; in respect to capital planning, he underlined the fact that limited resources at disposal to LSGs require undertaking diligent process of capital projects’ assessment, leading to achieving desired tangible results in local communitie. "And it is precisely the processes, the sequence of steps that should be undertaken towards of transparency and credible budget management – that constitute core topics in the scope of internal financial control, which is therefore also essential for building trust between the administration and citizens," added Mr. Klaucke, congratulating once again the selected LSGs.

Nikola Tarbuk, SCTM Secretary General, pointed that „EU Exchange 6“ holds a distinguished position among programmes of development assistance to LSG channeled via SCTM. „In the previous period, throughout the last year, in the scope of the EU Exchange 6 Programme, we had a significant number of realized activities. That is one of the prevailing impressions, and we will hear more about what we achieved with the 30 initially selected towns and municipalities from their perspective in the following panel. At the same time, colleagues from LSGs who have been granted support in the new cycle will be able to learn first-hand what they can expect in the course of cooperation within the Programme“, observed Mr Tarbuk.

He pointed out that, in addition to support packages for elaboration of LSG development and mid-term plans and for improving capital planning and budgeting, which were encompassed by 2022 competitions, the new cycle includes for the first time beneficiaries in the field of internal financial control, specifically for improvements concerning the financial management and control system and the internal audit function, which SCTM is particularly looking forward to, as a new added value of the Exchange Programme.

„I congratulate the award of the assistance to all towns and municipalities selected upon this round of EU Exchange 6 support, and sincerely wish that this well-deserved support is used optimally. As so far, SCTM shall remain your closest partner and will support you in all the activities you are undertaking to improve the performance of your LSG and the quality of life of citizens in your local communities“, concluded Tarbuk.

Local self-governments selected upon competitions conducted in the first half of year 2023, receive expert support for the elaboration of development plans, of mid-term plans, for the improvement of LSG capital projects’ planning and budgeting, as well as for the establishment or improvement of the financial management and control system (FMC) and/or internal audit (IA) function. During the meeting, a ceremonial signing of posters took place, by representatives of LSGs as beneficiaries of expert support, and representatives of the EU Delegation and of national institutions, concluded by a joint photo session. Beneficiaries of support are the following towns and municipalities:

• Support package for elaboration of LSG Development Plans (8 LSGs): Cuprija, Cajetina, Golubac, Bajina Basta, Lajkovac, Kosjeric, Bogatic and Svilajnac.
• Support package for elaboration of mid-term plan (10 LSGs): Kovin, Subotica, Loznica, Krupanj, Novi Knezevac, Bolјevac, Nova Varos, Sokobanja, Leskovac i Uzice.
• Support package for improving the capital projects’ planning and budgeting in LSGs (11 LSGs): Vrnjacka Banja, Tutin, Vlasotince, Novi Pazar, Arilјe, Kovin, Sombor, Raska, Medvedja, Zaječar and Babusnica.
• Provision of expert support to LSGs for establishing/improving the FMC System (5 LSGs): Bolјevac, Srbobran, Lajkovac, Vrbas and Tutin.
• Provision of expert support to LSGs for establishing/improving the IA Function (6 LSGs): Trstenik, Odzaci, Kanjiza, Tutin, Golubac and Sombor.

As part of the ceremony, a short panel was organized with representatives of the city of Leskovac (Jelena Zivkovic, head of the office for local development), the municipality of Raska (Djordje Radoicic, advisor for economic development and European integration) and the municipality of Krupanj (Jelena Teodorovic, head of the department for economy and local economic development) - LSGs which have already received support under the public call implemented in year 2022. The panel was intended to present the importance of support and beneficiaries' experiences in the processes of elaborating the development plan, mid-term plan and for strategic and financial planning of capital projects. Likewise, the content of support in the field of internal financial control in the public sector was outlined, given that it is approved for the first time in the scope of EU Exchange 6 Programme in year 2023 to selected LSGs, while also the part of the Programme assistance concerning the introduction of public budget portals in 20 LSGs was summarized.

The “EU Exchange 6 Programme – Enhancing credibility of planning, programme-based budgeting and control in execution of public expenditures at local level in Serbia”, is financed by the European Union in the scope of IPA 2019 national allocation, and is being implemented in the period from September 2021, to September 2024, with the total amount of EU donation worth 2 million EUR.  

The key competent line institutions at the national level are the Ministry of Finance and the Public Policy Secretariat, along with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of European Integration, while the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) has the role of implementing partner.

Implementation of the Programme is directly in the function of reforming the public administration at the local level and enforcing the legislation pertaining to planning and budgeting systems. Various modalities of technical assistance are being applied in the scope of the Programme, as relevant for topics concerning reforming the public administration at the local level.

The course of the ceremony was broadcasted in real time and is available at SCTM YouTube channel at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K71dgo1o4QA