Press conference marking the closure of the project “Capacity Building of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury in the Decentralised Implementation System in Bosnia and Herzegovina” took place on 17 February at the premises of the European Union Delegation to BiH.

The EU financed this project in the amount 1.8 million EUR with aim to support strengthening of the institutional capacities of the BiH Ministry of Finance and Treasury necessary for the implementation of decentralized systems for management of the EU IPA funds in BiH.

The main objective of decentralisation is to empower beneficiary countries to manage properly and effectively EU pre-accession funds and thereby increase their ownership of the assistance provided.

„In Bosnia and Herzegovina a system is currently being built for the present scope of assistance from IPA pre-accession funds, on an average annual level of 100 million EUR. A candidate country, that BiH is aspiring to become, will have to implement all IPA funds in a decentralised manner. This means that full care of the programming, procurement and implementation processes is being taken by the beneficiary country for which it needs to have implementation structures, systems, authorities and, moreover, responsibilities in place”, said at a press conference Maria Farrar-Hockley, Head of Operations section for Justice and Home Affairs in the Delegation of the European Union to BiH.

Farrar-Hockley stressed that this system implies a process of long-term training and creation of structures to enable accreditation award.

“This project has helped BiH to make the first step in the system of decentralization. That is a creation of structure of the people who will work on it. Unfortunately, all the functions that should be set were not established by competent authorities so that certain actions had to be either postponed or it was not possible to make them”, said Farrar-Hockley, adding that the EU is eagerly waiting to see progress in the appointment of DIS functions so that those structures could start building up their capacities, receiving training and guidance when organising themselves in line with the requirements of the IPA Implementing Regulation.

After sufficient work has been done and the structures are deemed to be compliant with the standards, the EU will give an authorisation for the conferral of management of EU funds thereby officially certifying the country’s DIS system as capable of taking part in a responsible way in managing this part of EU’s budget.

Results of a three-year long work within the project in establishment of new sectors, the National Fund  (NF) and the Central Financing and Contracting Unit (CFCU), which will be managing future EU financial assistance together with BiH Ministry of Finance and Treasury, were presented by the Project Team Leader Leo Quinlan.

„The goal was simple – to build capacity of the CFCU and NF in order to be ready to become functional in a decentralized system of accreditation.  Primary activities were: training of personnel, study visits to other countries such as Macedonia, Croatia and Lithuania, internships both within and outside the project with EU staff and with colleagues from other surrounding countries, in order to exchange experiences“, said Quinlan.

“However, the most important result is that Bosnia and Herzegovina now has a very well-trained staff, which has mastered the skills for the work and comprehensive written procedures that will lead them in their work. Most importantly, these are young people who are well trained, highly motivated, enthusiastic and with great self-confidence in the business“, concluded Quinlan.

Vera Letica, Assistant Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH stated that the BiH Ministry of Finance and Treasury prepared a Road Map for procurement of DIS accreditation.   „The document is sent to the BiH Council of Ministers for adoption.  We expect all the other actors in the country to take all the necessary steps in order to achieve the final goal, which is accreditation of structures of Bosnia and Herzegovina to independently manage both projects and resources of the EU”, Letica said.   The project was implemented by the East West Consulting in consortium with HELM Corporation and Euro Business Partners.