The National Assembly delegation comprised Veroljub Arsic, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending, Dr Vladimir Marinkovic, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and NPC Board member, Aleksandar Jovicic, member of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy and Dusica Stojkovic, member of the European Integration Committee.
Taking part in one of the panels, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending Veroljub Arsic spoke of the role of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending and the National Assembly in budget planning and adoption, as well as in the monitoring of budget execution, and briefed the participants of the conference on the National Assembly’s Public Finance Supervision Portal project which should in its first stage facilitate the MPs’, and later the citizens’, access to important information relating to budgetary expenditure, in real time.
At another panel, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and NPC Board member Dr Vladimir Marinkovic spoke of the importance and role of the Budget Office in developed countries, especially as regards the drafting of analyses and studies essential for the MPs’ and the Parliament’s successful involvement in the budgeting process and the monitoring of budget realisation. He went on to brief the participants of the conference on the Budget Office project at the National Assembly, realised with the support of the Scottish Parliament and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The Office is set to open in April.
At the end of the two-day conference the participants adopted the following conclusions and recommendations:
1. Parliaments play a key role in the budgetary oversight, therefore the parliaments of the Western Balkan countries should participate more in the supervision over the budget and finances.
2. The administrative and financial capacities of the parliaments of the Western Balkan countries need to be further developed in order to conduct financial supervision: exchanging best practices via the regional NPC could be a good model for the continued support of the further development of financial supervision in the parliaments of the Western Balkan countries.
3. The Western Balkan countries face problems of austerity and debt. The parliaments are the key institutions to debate possible solutions which is why the parliaments must have access to high-quality data analytics, with the engagement of all stakeholders.
The conference, attended by MPs and representatives of eight Western Balkan parliaments, experts on budget, financial policies and audits, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Albania and the Scottish Parliament’s Budget Office, was organized by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in cooperation with the Albanian Parliament and the Network of Parliamentary Committees on Economy, Finance and European Integration of the Western Balkans.