Foreign donors care to make local authorities learn financial management

Foreign donors provide money so that the Moldovan local public authorities learn the basics of financial management, Info-Prim Neo reports. Alexandru Roman, the rector of the Public Administration Academy (PAA) says more than 120 mayors attended two-week courses last fall and this spring, at which they got familiar with the methodology of drafting budgets, plan expenditures, organize internal control and auditing. “Many representatives of local authorities, who got invested following the local elections, need this knowledge, as they were not engaged in the budget process before being elected,” says Roman. The training is part of a project of the World Bank (WB) “Public Financial Management”, one of the four components of which deals with training public servants. The total cost of the project is $15.3 million, of which 8.6 million represent the preferential loan the WB offered to Moldova, 4.02 million – the grant offered by the Dutch Government, while the contribution of the Moldovan Government is $738,000. The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) offered $2 million as a grant. The WB has announced an international tender in this respect attended by 12 companies, and won by the Stockholm-based International Administration Institute.