Bulgaria : Country Financial Accountability Assessment
Bulgaria's ambitious program of reforms in several areas, including public financial management (PFM), focuses greatly on its entry into the European Union (EU). Thus, the country has a well developed system, and structure of financial managem...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/09/4663040/bulgaria-country-financial-accountability-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14581 |
| Summary: | Bulgaria's ambitious program of
reforms in several areas, including public financial
management (PFM), focuses greatly on its entry into the
European Union (EU). Thus, the country has a well developed
system, and structure of financial management, that relies
heavily on information technology (such as in the area of
cash management), and has independent external audits, and
parliamentary oversight committees. Although many laws, and
institutional arrangements have been established,
institutions still need technical assistance, and training
to absorb the methods, and international best practices.
Bulgaria has significantly reduced the number of
extra-budgetary funds, thereby improving the budget's
comprehensiveness. It has adopted a pilot programmatic
approach in three ministries, strengthening the
budget-policy link, and, created a Treasury Single Account
to service all budgetary institutions. Moreover, the country
has a strong internal audit body in the form of the Public
Internal Financial Control Agency (PIFCA), and, external
audits are performed by the National Audit Office, which
submits its reports to the National Assembly, with adequate
operational independence, and resources. A key theme in this
Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) and
recommendations, is the need to build capacity to implement
the laws and regulations, while further recommendations
address, by and large: development guidelines for planning
and evaluating public investments database, and data
recovery plans; establishment of a government-wide
information technology (IT) function to set benchmarks, and
develop an IT strategy; revision of the provisions regarding
PIFCA's responsibility to introduce internal control
policies, and establish preventive control systems;
development of training programs in risk assessment; and,
development of comprehensive strategies, guidelines and
training programs for auditing revenues, and IT-based systems. |
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