The Ministry of Finance has launched public consultations with civil society and the academic community on the creation of the Fiscal Council, which will be an independent institution that will monitor and assess the budgetary-fiscal policies and fiscal performance, IPN reports.

Lithuania, Serbia and Slovakia have such councils and these work successfully there. “We will analyze the practices existing in these and other countries. We must assess the costs and human resources needed for instituting the Fiscal Council,” said Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu.

Dumitru Budianski, programs director at the independent analytical center “Expert-Grup”, said that if such a Council is set up, this should be independent. “How will the ten experts who should be included in the Council chosen? Their remuneration should also not be neglected if we want the Fiscal Council’s appraisals to be credible and independent,” he stated.  

Both the expert and the representatives of the Ministry of Finance said the Ministry’s capability to manage the annual and medium-term budgetary processes and the public and public guaranteed debts should be strengthened. Work should also be done in the area of state-owned enterprises and joint-stock companies with majority state capital. The Ministry of Finance announced that a project supported by the World Bank will be launched in 2017 to improve corporate governance at these companies.