The Performance Program Budgeting: Formation and Development Forum was held by the USAID Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative (MFSI-II) Rollout Project in Kyiv on 2 March.
This event has become a discussion platform for more than 100 financial specialists from all parts of Ukraine, including specialists of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, Finance Departments of local budgets of all levels, international experts, representatives of the academia and the civil sector.
The Forum was intended as the venue for discussing improvements to Performance Program Budgeting at the central government level and determining the 
progress in implementation of the Performance Program Budgeting (PPB) method at the level of local budgets, identifying any problems in this process, and finding the ways of their resolution.
The event was chaired by Yevhen Kuzkin, director of the Department of Local Budgets at the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance. He has underlined that the Strategy of Public Finance Management System Reform for 2017-2021 defines improvements of the PPB methodology as one of the priorities.
In turn, USAID’s Director of Municipal Development Projects Thomas White has reminded the audience that one of the MFSI-II Project’s objectives is improving effectiveness and transparency of budget spending through introduction of PPB. “USAID supports the efforts of improving the legislation, drafting bylaws to build a framework for PPB-based budget formation and execution, and delivering training of specialists,” White noted.
Vyacheslav Zubenko, director general of the Institute for Budgetary and Socio-Economic Research has stated that experts of the MFSI-II Project delivered training for more than 14,000 local specialists. At the same time, the majority of participants have spoken in favor of further training of financial specialists to be provided by MFSI-II experts with due account for legislative changes. This issue is especially important for specialists of amalgamated territorial communities.
International experts have shared their experience of PPB implementation, including in the USA. In turn, Ukrainian experts on Performance Program Budgeting have shared their groundwork on the formation of local budgets in Ukraine.
Based on the discussions held during the Forum, MFSI-II experts will develop recommendations for improving the PPB methodology and further expansion of Performance Program Budgeting at the local level. Among other things, the recommendations will cover the following areas:
- formation of budget programs oriented towards service provision rather than maintenance of institutions, and establishment of service provision standards;
- quality review of performance indicators;
- engaging each service institution towards achieving the planned results of budget program execution; and
- implementing an effective system for evaluation of budget program performance, which would allow to increase the efficiency of and strengthen the links between the PPB methodology and budget programs.
The Forum has become the first networking platform for conducting a dialog between the representatives of local and central governments, sharing of PPB implementation practices, and determining the ways of further development of public finance management. The participants have expressed their wish for such meetings to be held on a regular basis.
Glyanec