October 2007

NEW PROJECTS

Incorporation of performance-based budgeting techniques in Health sector in Vologda region Target group of this project combines financiers as well as medical doctors, what is both a uniques feature of and a challenge for the project. The CFP will analyze current state of financing and delivering services in Health sector in the region, conduct training seminars for the project's audience and organize study-tour to England.

Technical assistance to the Department of Finance and Treasure of the city of Vladikavkaz In this project the CFP will assist the Department in drafting a municipal finance reform program for 2008 - 2010. This program will integrate action and measures towards improvement of municipal finance management in the city and intergovernmental fiscal relations with upper level of the Russian budget system.

Diagnosis of financial and managerial problems in the Vorkuta municipal budget system The CFP expert interviewed Heads of the Vorkuta Administration Departments as well as managers of the major Vorkuta business to find out the current situation with financing of social sphere as education, health, infrastructure, culture, etc., and in the area of intergovernmental fiscal relations with state and federal levels of budget. Those interviews resulted in the report where the CFP experts emphasized the most urgent issues in the system of financing public services in Vorkuta and suggested ways to optimize budget expenditures and increase efficiency of them.

COMPLETED PROJECTS

The CFP presented findings of the IT in Municipal Finance Management project at the seminar organized by the Carnegie Moscow Centre on the 24th of October. The study was supported by the Open Society Institute and conducted in Rostov and Smolensk oblast.
Project Team leader: Olga Vorontsova
Project report (in Russian)

ON-GOING PROJECTS

The CFP presented outputs to-date and workplan for 2007 – 2010 of the Technical Assistance to the Northen Caucasus Regions project at the gathering of the USAID funded project that operate in the region.
Presentation

Participants of the Incorporation of Performance-based Budgeting Techniques in Health Sector in Vologda Region project visited England to learn about a system of financing and delivering Health services in the country.

SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES

October 9 – 11: Galina Kurlyandskaya, General Director, participated in the fall gathering of the federal and regional top managers of finance departments held in Suzdal. The gathering was dedicated to the fiscal and financial potential for improvement of quality of life in Russia. Representatives of the leading Russian consulting organizations, of which the CFP was one of a few, were also invited to spoke there. Dr. Kurlyandskaya emphasized urgency of engagement of the federal government to the consultants’ efforts towards development of classification and standards of public service.
Presentation (in Russian)

Dr. Kurlyandskaya also participated at the international conference “Strategy “Kazakhstan – 2030”: outputs and outlook of the first decade” held in Astana on October 12 and chaired by the President of Kazakhstan Narsultan Nazarbaev. The CFP was invited to the conference as a long-term partner of the Ministry of Economics and Budgetary Planning of Kazakhstan and the main advisor in developing intergovernmental transfers’ formula in the Republic that was adopted by the Government of Kazakhstan last summer.

October 12: The CFP conducted the first training seminar under the Incorporation of Performance-based Budgeting Techniques in Health Sector in Vologda Region project. The seminar attended 150 people, including financiers and chief doctors of the regional and municipal medical entities.

October 18 – 19: Galina Kurlyandskaya General Director, and Alexandr Derugin Deputy Director, participated in the meeting of the Budget Committee of the Council of Federation held in Perm. The discussion themes included new amendments to the Budget Code.

October 18 – 19: The CFP conducted the next seminar under the Transition to Performance-based budgeting Within the Framework of Regional Finance Reform Program 2006 – 2008 in Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast project.

Elena Andreeva Academic Director, presented finding of the CFP study on budgetary and socio-economic consequences of children’s services reform in Tomsk oblast at the UNICEF workshop on Positioning Social and Economic Policy in the CEE-CIS Region held in Switzerland. Dr. Andreeva spoke on public finance management, budgeting and fiscal equalization in children’s services. The event was an ‘integral part of the UNICEF agenda on strengthening the interface between policy development, public finance management and governance systems’. The CFP project appeared to be the first approach to the developing of a methodology on evaluation of budgetary and socio-economic effects of the children’s services reform in long-term outlook.
Report on the study (in Russian)