May 2007

EVENTS CALENDAR


May 14 Director General Galina Kurlyandskaya spoke at the Parliamentary Hearings on the draft federal budget for 2008 and for the time period 2008 – 2010. She presented “Budget equalization of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the draft federal budget for 2008 and for the time period 2008 – 2010”. Ms. Kurlyandskaya emphasized main innovations in the Budget Equalization Fund methodology regarding advantages and disadvantages of the new methodology of calculation of the tax base of regions and municipalities, and corresponding changes in the federal transfer amounts.
Presentation (in Russian)


May 14-17 The CFP delivered the last training session within Component 3 “Training of regional and municipal professionals” of the “Technical Assistance to the North Caucasus Regions” Project Under this Component the CFP conducted 5 training sessions for professionals and local governments of the Southern Federal District (SFD), one Round Table for financiers of the North Caucasus regions, and two-week training of regional consultants for those regions. From October 2005 to May 2007, when the Component was implemented, 492 people from 11 SFD’s regions attended the CFP’s seminars.


May 21 IGFR Academic Team Leader Olga Vorontsova presented “Fiscal and Financial Principles of the Local Self-government Reform” to more then 40 representatives of municipal finance departments and LG bodies of the Republic of Kalmykiya. The seminar was organized by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Territorial Development of the Republic of Kalmykiya.


May 29 Senior Consultant Natalia Barbashova participated in the Seventh Conference “Fiscal Policy Improvement on the regional and Local levels: Issues and Challenges”. The Conference was organize by the State University in the city of Petrozavodsk (Rep. of Karelia) for the North-West Federal District.


June 1 Senior Consultant Konstantin Anglichanov will participate in the meeting of the Working Group on Governance Improvement in the SFD. Mr. Anglichanov will present the results of the CFP’s work within framework of the Technical Assistance to the North Caucasus Regions Project.


COMPLETED PROJECTS


The project “Development of recommendations on the methodology of normative financing of state and municipal education institutions in Sakhalin Oblast” was completed in May. The CFP has developed 8 regional regulations to facilitate transition from conventional to per capita normative-based mode of financing of education.
Project Team Leader Natalia Tipenko


NEW PROJECTS


Center for Fiscal Policy in consortium with Center for Economic and Finance Consulting develops the system of measures towards improvement of public services delivering in Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast. In particular, the Consortium will develop quality standards for public services delivering and system of calculating the demand for such services; assist in reorganization of the budgetary institutions that provide social services in the form of non-governmental institutions. Besides this, the Consortium will develop the system of monitoring of governments performance both on regional and local levels. This project is implemented within the framework of the Regional Public Finance Reform in Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast for 2006 – 2008, and will be completed by December 1, 2007.
Project Team Leader Antonina Kovalevskaya
More about the Project


CURRENT PROJECTS


The CFP continues implementing the Technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in improvement of intergovernmental fiscal relations Projects as it was stated in the project ToR
More about the project


Technical assistance to the city of Baley and to the Baley municipal district (Chita oblast) in improving public finance management The CFP issued draft report “Analysis of Municipal Unitary Establishments and Recommendations on Their Operation Improvement”


USAID / SUAL GDA Partnership Program At the last stage of the project the CFP developed recommendations on financing of professional education in the pilot regions


Technical Assistance to the North Caucasus Regions The CFP has completed Component 3 “Training of regional and municipal professionals and local governments”. Within this Component the CFP delivered basic course “Public finance and intergovernmental fiscal relations on regional and local levels”, and trained regional and municipal financiers in drafting and execution of budget, and in analysis of the budget expenditures outputs.


The CFP continues implementing Components 1 & 2 of the Project that are “Monitoring of Governance and Self-governance Performance” and “Assistance in the Development and Implementation of Regional Public Finance Reform and of the Strategy of Socio-Economic Development of the North Caucasus Regions”.


Under Component 1 the CFP has developed Rating of Governance Performance in the Subjects of RF Methodology. This methodology includes:



  • Managerial standards

  • Socio-economic development of the subject of RF

  • National projects

  • Other social sectors

  • Infrastructure

Component 2 is implemented in the Republic of Dagestan, and beginning from June will be launched in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkariya


UPCOMING


The CFP has launched the project “Implementation of Administrative and Fiscal Reforms on Local Level” made possible through the USAID grant. The CFP will assist the three selected municipalities in using new incentives provided by the reforms towards improvement of public finance management modes. These municipalities include cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and Ussuriisk and Nadezhdinsk municipal district (Primorskiy Krai). The CFP experts met with professionals and top managers of these municipalities to specify their training and assistance needs which will create the basis of the training programs. The first training session of the program will take place in Ussuriisk on the 26-27th of June. The CFP invited all municipalities that participated in the tender to attend the session.


The CFP will issue the report on the main findings under the OSI project “Local Financial management Information Systems in Russia: Comparative Lessons and Challenges Ahead” in July 2007,


and in August 2007 the CFP will complete the LGI project “Public Services in Rural Areas”. The project report will include finding in the area of financing health and education in the rural and remote areas of Russia