This project aimed at strengthening the capacity of BiH authorities to develop and execute effective fiscal policies and to improve the management of public finances at all government levels.
The key issue of the project was the urgent need to establish centralised fiscal policy coordination within the given complex multi-layer political and institutional structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina. To assist the BiH authorities in building capacity and institutions for coordinated and coherent country-wide fiscal policies and to develop and implement overarching macro-economic and fiscal policies.
The objective was accomplished in detail by:
• Facilitating the process of fiscal policy formulation of the Governing Board (GB) of the Indirect Tax Authority (ITA);
• Building capacity of economists and policy advisors of Macroeconomic Analysis Unit (MAU) of ITA and of the Fiscal Council (FC) through targeted training methodologies;
• Supporting the build-up of functioning cooperation between the relevant institutions;
• Help in the development of coherent fiscal data reporting;
• Awareness raising activities for fiscal developments (publications, website);
• Identification of equipment and software needs for the linking of the GB of ITA and the three Finance Ministries.
Key project results included:
• Enhancement of institutional and fiscal management capacity of the GB/FC;
• Improvement of the database for country-wide fiscal management;
• Development of a government information strategy to increase the understanding of the public on fiscal policy issues;
• Development and implementation of technical infrastructure of the main beneficiary.