She started the meeting with a brief presentation of the activities of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending, saying that this year’s Budget Law was passed within the deadline stipulated by law which demonstrates the competent institutions’ responsibility. Tomic also added that Serbia is also the only country in the region to have implemented gender-responsive budgeting.

She informed the SIGMA programme representatives about the projects the National Assembly is realizing in cooperation with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UN Development Programme and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, concerning the establishment of the Parliamentary Budget Office and the Public Finance Supervision Portal.

The Chairperson of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending then spoke about strengthening expert supervision over public finance and the Committee’s role in controlling the execution of the republic budget from the aspect of performance and efficiency of public expenditure, and the procedures and deadlines for the analysis of the State Audit Institution (DRI) reports. The Chairperson also informed the SIGMA representatives that, in line with the Action Plan for the implementation of the Public Finance Management Reform Programme, in July 2016 the Committee had set up the Subcommittee for the Consideration of Reports on Audits Conducted by the State Audit Institution and is currently considering the institution of a new mode of DRI report presentation to be implemented in the Committee’s operation in order to provide for a more constructive debate.

Considering the indicators the implementation of which is assessed by SIGMA in its support for the improvement in governance and management in EU candidate states, Tomic said that the Committee members have made it their task to abide by European standards and achieve them step by step.

The meeting was attended by SIGMA experts Bianca Breteche, Eduardo Zapico and Phil Duncombe.