Summary

This project has been implemented by UNDP and Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, with the support of the Slovak Ministry of Finance and Slovak Aid as of 2018. Our joint goal is to further improve public finance management (PFM) in the country through ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and responsibility in fiscal planning and execution, as a prerequisite for the further development of all sectors of economy and better quality of life for citizens.

Background

The project Public Finance for Development is based on a long and rich experience that the Slovak Republic, as a donor, and UNDP have gained over the course of the past years. The partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Slovak Republic has been the largest regional initiative that in the previous years consisted of the capacity building and supporting Official Development Assistance (ODA) delivery. The partnership continued by supporting the public finance management reforms in partner countries through the Public Finance for Development (PFD) Programme. Currently, this regional project is implemented in Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

UNDP CO Montenegro is providing comprehensive assistance to the Ministry in line with the relevant strategic documents and EU accession priorities, and the support is flexible and demand-driven, focusing on several areas: 1. Reform of the public sector accounting and reporting systems – transition from modified cash-based to accrual accounting and alignment with international accounting and reporting standards; 2. Capacity building to increase public revenues through improving normative and institutional framework related to the games of chance; 3. Strengthening effective public financial management at the local level with the aim of improving the transparency and accountability in the process of the budget planning, creation, execution, and monitoring; 4. Macro-economic and fiscal forecasting through the preparation of relevant strategic and policy documents and 5. Support in strengthening of finance services and payment transactions.

Project Outcome

• Development of Public Sector Accounting Law and secondary legislation;  

• Revision of draft Law on Games of Chance and ongoing development of secondary legislation;  

• Support to the preparation of regulations concerning LG financing;  

• Ongoing introduction of program-based budgeting, mid-term budget framework and capital budgeting at the local level;  

• Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) preparation at the local level;  

• Contribution to participatory budgeting through Citizen Budget Guides preparation in municipalities;  

• Development of a transparent formula and software for allocation of resources from the Equalization fund for underdeveloped municipalities, and establishing the mechanism of the Support Fund for Pre-financing Municipal Donor-Supported Projects and software to assist the municipalities in pre-financing of EU funded projects, etc.