Agenda for the workshop on Assessing fiscal responsibility criteria, co-organised by the Ministry of Finance and SIGMA in Podgorica on 26 & 26 June 2015.

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AGENDA
SIGMA WORKSHOP
Assessing Fiscal Responsibility Criteria
25-26 June 2015
Podgorica, Montenegro

2. 2
Background
The new law on budget and fiscal responsibility, adopted on 14 April 2014, provides the State Audit
Institution (SAI) of Montenegro with a new task which is an assessment of the application of the Fiscal
Responsibility Criteria (Article 26). According to this new article, the SAI shall assess the application of
the fiscal responsibility criteria as part of the annual report submitted to the Parliament. Based on the
assessment of the SAI, the Ministry of Finance shall propose to the Government, and the Government
shall in turn propose to the Parliament, a plan for the recovery of numeric limits being exceeded, in
accordance with this Law.
During a Roundtable, organised by SIGMA on 28 May 2015, the experiences of EU member states was
shared on how a Supreme Audit Institution that has the role of a monitoring institution in this context
can fulfil this role in a way that allows it to comply with its mandate while at the same time taking into
account its limited resources. The countries that shared their experiences in this Roundtable were
France, representing an “old” and rather large EU member state and Hungary, representing a “new” and
rather small EU member state. While France presented its experiences from the perspective of a SAI,
Hungary presented it from the perspective of the fiscal council and an engaged NGO. The Roundtable
format provided the opportunity to examine Montenegro’s concrete questions in light of experiences
made elsewhere.
Following the Roundtable, this technical workshop will now concentrate on practical question of what to
assess and how to do it in Montenegro. The workshop is addressed mainly to the state auditors who will
concretely exercise the new task as well as the members of the senate of the SAI.
Approach
The Workshop aims to explore possibilities for starting points and approaches for the SAI of Montenegro
for assessing fiscal responsibility criteria through
1. example of a real exercise as is expected under the current law;
2. discuss next possible steps for the SAI Montenegro to start with the assessment of fiscal
responsibility criteria.
Preparation
The participants are kindly requested to use the tables provided by the president of the SAI of
Montenegro, Mr. Dabovic for the Roundtable on 28 May 2015 and provide data for:
 Executed budget 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 for both, the initial government numbers and the final
audited numbers for the whole table.
 Main macro-fiscal (GDP, consumption, inflation, main tax revenues by type) figures for each
respective year as they are available now and as they were available in June of the next year (e.g.
the final GDP figure for 2012 as we know it now, and the preliminary GDP figure for 2012 that
was available in June 2013).
For the introduction to macro fiscal, it would be very useful to also have a list of the main tax revenues
(VAT, excise duties, income tax, etc.) and transfers (pensions, family allowances, unemployment benefit,
etc.).

3. 3
Thursday 25 June 2015
09:00 – 09:15 Registration
09:15 – 10:45
Assess the application of the fiscal responsibility criteria
Experts:
Mr. Christian Charpy, Court of Auditors, France
Mr. Balazs Romhanyi, Fiscal Responsibility Institute Budapest
1. Discussion of issues that might have come up in preparation of the tables.
2. Discussion about figures and clarify what they represent (net debt versus gross
debt, cash versus accrual based interest expenditure, EU funds donations,
donations co-financing etc... What happens when EU money comes in slots and
the budget has to pre-finance it and natural disaster? How often does this
happen? General government concept?)
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30
3. Explore existing methodologies of the SAI and evaluate on how helpful they can
be for the new task.
4. Reporting: discuss existing examples from France and Hungary
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch – buffet lunch provided by SIGMA in the hotel restaurant
13:30 – 14:45
Introduction to Macro Fiscal
Speaker: Mr. Balazs Romhanyi, Fiscal Responsibility Institute Budapest
For this session it would be very useful to have a list of main tax revenues (VAT, excise
duties, income tax, etc.) and transfers (pensions, family allowances, unemployment
benefit, etc.)
Questions and answers
14:45 - 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 – 16:45
Experiences and approach of France
Speaker: Mr. Christian Charpy, Court of Auditors, France
What does the Court of Auditors analyse when it examines the endowment of budget
laws, either for central state or for general government. How to measure public deficit,
public debt and public expenditure? How to compare previsions and execution? How to
explain the deviations from one year to another, from prevision to execution, either for
deficit, tax revenues and expenditures, or for the GDP.
16:45 – 17:00 Wrap-up day 1

4. 4
Friday 26 June 2015
8:00 – 9:30
Where to start in Montenegro
Experts:
Mr. Christian Charpy, Court of Auditors, France
Mr. Balazs Romhanyi, Fiscal Responsibility Institute Budapest
Based on the discussions and presentations of the first workshop day, participants and
trainers will discuss next possible steps for the SAI Montenegro to start with the
assessment of fiscal responsibility criteria.
9:30 – 9:45 Coffee break
9:45 – 10:45
Where to start in Montenegro (continuation)
11:00 End of Workshop