Public finance is everyone’s business. This was the key message sent from the Fiscast economic forum organised today to mark the successful completion of the programme assistance we have run on public finance management with the implementing partner Finance Think.
The economic forum which took place in Skopje today gathered government officials such as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Kocho Angjushev, Finance Minister Dragan Tevdovski, representatives of international financial institutions, bankers, business people, university professors, analysts and media. The central piece of debate was how the public funds are being spent to support business, how the state programmes the money and how the people’s money that are invested via the tax in the state budget are returned through the services provided to the citizens.
Our ambassador Charles Garrett spoke at the opening of the forum underlining the importance of the public’s right to know and have understanding of a subject that directly or indirectly, affects everyone. He said:
This programme has helped citizens directly by making it easier to understand how their money is used, what the government spends it on and whether that gives them value for their money. I see this as a key element of healthy democracy. Because citizens are obliged to give the government money, they have a right to know the basic facts about how it is spent. And as a government official myself, responsible for spending the citizens hard-earned money, I know very well that transparency means better decisions.
Within this programme the Finance Think team for the past year and a half worked on the efficiency and quality of policies concerning in quality of life, education and health issues. Within the programme there have been numerous events for decision-makers, experts and journalists to debate policies in the process of being designed, events to examine the data and evidence which shape those policies, events to look at how these policies would affect the lives of the people.
The implementation of this programme saw broad partnership and consultation civil society, international financial institutions, EU Delegation, experts, journalists.
UK delivers a broad assistance programme to Macedonia. The British Embassy programme support runs in several reform areas with the civil service, judiciary, human rights, democracy, social cohesion, public finance management, strengthening civil society and media. You can find more information about our programme assistance here.
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Source: UK & Macedonia