OSCE Mission to Skopje supports training of local finance officers

SKOPJE, 24 October 2008 - Finance officers from 30 local self-government units will learn how to prepare a three-year plan of development programmes, as required by recent legislative changes, at an OSCE Mission-supported workshop starting in Stip today.

Municipalities must draft the development plans as a basis for preparing the annual budgets for the next fiscal year. The training course, which is being implemented by the Association of Finance Officers (AFO) and supported by the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, will enable finance officers to have the plans ready for approval and adoption by 15 November, a precondition for the timely adoption of the 2009 budgets.

"The OSCE Mission previously supported the development of a budget template, used by all municipalities in the country to develop their budgets and prepare financial reports, and this year we are happy to provide capacity building for a new budget feature - the plans of development programmes," said Alessandro Tedesco, Acting Head of the Public Administration Reform Department at the OSCE Mission.

"Through this training, the financial officers have the chance to see how these plans of development programmes should look and prepare the drafts that the municipal councils should formally adopt," said Evgenija Gramatikova, President of AFO.

The group is the last group to be trained with OSCE Mission support in a programme that has offered courses to officials from 84 municipalities.