NISPAcee-2010
14 May 2010
International Conference on Public Administration
Experts of the Budget Institute took part in the 18th Annual Conference “Public Administration in Times of Crisis", which took place in Warsaw, Poland, on 12-14 May 2010. The event was organized by the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee) in cooperation with The National School of Public Administration, Warsaw, Poland.
This year’s conference was attended by more than 300 participants from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, as well as from the United States and Canada.
The main focus of the conference was on the public administration in times of crisis, which is an extremely topical issue for all the participating countries. The crisis has revealed weaknesses in the current system of public administration, in particular, in the area of public finance, and pointed to the need of implementing changes aimed at improving this situation.
György Jenei, NISPAcee President, University of Budapest, Hungary addressed his welcoming remarks to the Conference participants. Also, Jacek Rostowski, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Poland, and Slawomir Brodzinski, Head of the Civil Service, took part in the Conference opening ceremony.
The Conference program included a number of general sessions and specialized Working Group panels subdivided into topics and focusing on specific issues of public administrations. It also included forums and specialized exhibitions.
The Budget Institute experts participated in the Working Group on Public Sector Finance and Accounting, which discussed the issues of public and local debt management and the need of adjusting the debt policy in the time of scarcity of resources at all levels.
Also, an issue was raised for the need of expanded fiscal decentralization at the local level and further implementation of Performance Program Budgeting at all levels, as covered in the presentation by David Amborski, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. In the course of the debates, the majority of Working Group members have come to the conclusion that in times of scarcity of financial resources in the public sector, it is essential to attract the resources of private investors based on the tools of Public-Private Partnership for implementation of local infrastructure improvement projects (cases of Bulgaria and Hungary).
The 18th Annual NISPAcee Conference has provided an opportunity to share ideas and experience with the colleagues from other countries, discuss the pressing current issues in the area of public finance, and establish contracts with foreign partners.
The international experience learned by IBSER experts at the conference will contribute to improving the performance quality of the Municipal Finance Strengthening Initiative Project, in particular, of its Component 2 with regard to assisting local governments in the pilot regions to improve their capacity of elaborating possible strategies for development of infrastructure, use of capital projects, and assuring efficiency of fiscal management based on PPB, as well as of its Component 3 relative to the development and implementation of innovative procedures and approaches.
Glyanec