Second Regional Meeting of Working Group III on Governance of Public Finance, 7-8 May 2006, Cairo, Egypt

The second meeting of the GfD Working Group III on Governance of Public Finance took place in Cairo, Egypt, on 7-8 May 2006.

Participants

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Hany Dimian, Senior Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Egypt, and co-chaired by Mr. Helmer Vossers, Director of Budget Affairs, Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands and Mr. Richard Emery, Budget Advisor, US Office of Management and Budget, United States.

High-level representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen attended the meeting. In addition, policy experts from Japan, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey, the OECD Secretariat, the GTZ and ECORYS were present.

Objectives

The meetings main objectives were to:

• Update participants on the Working Group’s activities since the first regional meeting of the GfD Working Group III, held in Cairo on 1-3 October 2005,
• Discuss and further define the steps ahead concerning the creation of the MENA Regional Financial Management Training Center (see feasibility assessment),
• Give Arab countries the opportunity to provide an assessment of their country’s experience with Governance of Public Finance as well as to present key elements contained in their Country Action Plan,
• Organise a workshop on “Budget Comprehensiveness: Dealing with Off-Budget Expenditure” and “Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)”. This workshop was designed and prepared by ECORYS at the request of Mr. Helmer Vossers and financed by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Cairo, and
• Prepare the Second Steering Group Meeting at Ministerial Level, held on 19-20 May 2006 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Policy Dialogue

Discussion and country presentations showed that Arab countries are facing a number of common challenges related to the implementation of reforms concerned with the governance of public finance. These revolve around three major themes: ensuring sufficient budget transparency, comprehensiveness, and accountability & control.

OECD member countries provide a wide range of relevant experience with regard to implementing reforms which address such challenges. The meeting showed the increasing demand for discussion on the several items on which reform plans have been formulated. Participants evoked possibilities for  cooperation, for instance by studying the possibilities for peer-to-peer review and twinning with OECD and other MENA countries.

Outcomes:

The following key outcomes of the meeting were achieved:

• A presentation by Mr. Bennani, Head of Budget Department, Ministère des Finances et de la Privatisation, Morocco, showed the breath and depth of ongoing reforms in financial governance in this country and gave solid indications on the effective path and sequencing adopted in so doing
• Agreement to focus future efforts in the GfD Working Group III on the creation of the MENA Regional Financial Management Training Center

Documentation

• Meeting Agenda
• List of Participants
• Presentation by the OECD Secretariat, Mr. Olaf Merk, Project Manager, Budgeting Division, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate
• Presentation by Morocco, Mr. Bennani, Head of Budget Department, Ministère des Finances et de la Privatisation, Morocco
• Presentation by ECORYS, Mr. Feridoun Sarraf, Public Management and Expenditure Consultant, ECORYS
• Feasibility Assessment for the MENA Regional Financial Management Training Center, prepared by the OECD Secretariat

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