Public Expenditure Management Peer-Assisted Learning (The “PEM-PAL” Program)

1. Public Expenditure Management Peer-Assisted Learning(The “PEM-PAL” Program) Cheryl Gray, World Bank PEM-PAL Workshop Warsaw, Poland April 3, 2006

2. Why PEM-PAL? • Critical area: Efficient and effective public spending is at the core of economic development. • Universal practice: Budget preparation, execution, reporting, and monitoring are essential responsibilities of every government. • Strong peer learning potential: Many governments are trying new approaches; they can learn from each other.

3. What is ‘PEM-PAL’? • A capacity-building initiative for selected Europe and Central Asian governments • Core group of 13 governments; other ad hoc invitees • supported by broad donor community (World Bank, Dfid, US Treasury, OECD, others tbd) • Two complementary elements: • “Peer assisted learning” • Benchmarking (for focus and measurement of results)

4. 1. Peer-Assisted Learning • We want your ideas and inputs! • Range of possible activities: • Annual workshop • Focused “community of practice” meetings • Bilateral country visits • Videoconferencing around common themes • Website • Governments documents, learning materials, relevant articles, list of resource persons, etc.

5. Specific proposals to date: • 2007 Workshop in Vilnius, Lithuania (combined with OECD Senior Budget Officers Network) • Bilateral engagements (Tajikistan/Armenia) • Community of practice meeting for Treasury Heads (focused on IT implementation)

6. 2. Benchmarking • To set goals and measure progress: Where are you, and where do you want to be? • PEFA indicators • Budget preparation • Budget execution • Budget reporting and monitoring • PEFA assessments underway or completed in many ECA countries • Kyrgyz Republic and Moldova completed • Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Georgia, Serbia, Ukraine underway

7. External scrutiny and audit DIMENSIONS OF PFM SYSTEM PERFORMANCE Policy-based budgeting Six critical dimensions of PFM system performance Comprehensiveness and transparency Accounting, recording and reporting Predictability and control in budget execution Budget credibility

8. PEM-PAL Governance • Steering Group (interim) • 4 “founding” donors (WB, DfID, OECD, USTA) and 2 participating countries • Responsible for day-to-day operations • Advisory Body • One representative from each of 13 PEMPAL governments and 4 founding donors • Role: • To provide feedback on PEM-PAL program • To provide guidance on criteria for selecting and supporting activity ideas/proposals from participating countries

9. Agenda for this Workshop • Day 1 morning: Presentation and feedback on PEM-PAL concept, activities, and governance • Day 1 afternoon and Day 2: Plenary and break-out discussions around key topics identified by you • Budget formulation • Investment management • Budget execution • Day 3 morning: PEM-PAL benchmarking and next steps The aim of all sessions: Participation, interaction, feedback – This is YOUR program.

10. Specific questions • PEM-PAL content: What suggestions do you have regarding specific PEM-PAL activities? How can we make the program as useful as possible for capacity-building? • PEM-PAL governance: Do you have suggestions regarding the proposed PEM-PAL governance structure? Who would you like to nominate for the steering and/or advisory committees? • General: What other ideas or suggestions for the PEM-PAL program do you have at this stage?

11. Finally, thanks … • To DFID, for your generous support and funding • To OECD and US Treasury, for your enthusiastic partnership • To World Bank Institute, for your helpful in-house collaboration • To our country delegations, for your interest and participation • To participating World Bank staff, for your hard work in helping our clients • To other invited guests, for joining us We look forward to working with you to make this initiative as successful and helpful as possible.