The participants were first addressed by the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending, Veroljub Arsic, who said that the workshop aims to provide the committee members with more detailed information on the public finance management system, using as example the Ministry of Health i.e. the Republic Health Insurance Fund, one of the biggest beneficiaries of budgetary funds.

The Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, emphasised the importance of the workshop for the improvement of the budgeting process as a whole, especially in the sphere of healthcare, and the importance of cooperation and exchange of experiences between state authorities.

Fiscal Council member Vladimir Vuckovic outlined the recent improvements in the budget process and commended the progress made during the 2015 budget process where, in addition to own revenues, the budget also included the so-called expenditure below the line.

Deputy Director of the Financial Planning and Reporting Sector at the Republic Health Insurance Fund MA Dragan Matic presented the Fund’s financial planning activities and reports, as well as the problems encountered in the process.

Assistant Minister of Finance in charge of internal control and auditing Goran Cvejic presented the concept of internal financial control and pointed out the importance of establishing internal control, at all levels of public fund beneficiaries.

On the behalf of the State Audit Institution, the participants were addressed by the President of the State Audit Institution Council, Radoslav Sretenovic, and supreme state auditors Cvetana Prsic and Radulka Urosevic who presented the findings of the audits the State Audit Institution conducted in the Ministry of Health and the Republic Health Insurance Fund.

Representatives of SIGMA Jan Pieter Lingen and consultant Radojko Obradovic applauded the readiness of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending to tackle the issue considering the fact that the Republic Health Insurance Fund is one of the most complex systems in Serbia’s public finances and pointed out that the workshop is a new step in the cooperation between SIGMA and the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending. They said that this was the first time that five important institutions have gathered in one place to exchange their respective experiences in the sphere of healthcare, adding that the representatives of these institutions have made a number of excellent suggestions that SIGMA’s report will incorporate. Before it is published, the report will be sent to all the participants of the workshop so that they might add any suggestions and/or proposals for future workshop topics.

Besides the members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the workshop was attended by representatives of the Fiscal Council, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Republic Health Insurance Fund and the State Audit Institution, as well as National Assembly Support Service staff.