PR/27/2009
The European Union (EU) has made a leading contribution to the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) efforts to establish an efficient, transparent and well-structured public finance administration capability, with the completion of a €4 million technical assistance project to align practices with international standards - part of a comprehensive package of financial reforms originally introduced by Dr. Salam Fayyad when he was Minister of Finance, in which particular emphasis was placed on the development of an effective internal audit and internal control capacity.
For that purpose, the EU provided a €4 million technical assistance package for the Ministry of Finance, in a project which began in 2005 and is now coming to a close. The project had a particular focus on further strengthening the public financial management system in the PNA. In particular, the Ministry of Finance was aiming to have Internal Audit and Internal Control Departments that are in line with international best practice.
The EU's technical assistance programme provided to the Internal Audit and Internal Control Departments was implemented by Ernst & Young and addressed three key areas: management and organization, training, and manuals and directives.
- Under the management and organization pillar, a three-year audit plan was developed and a PNA audit committee was established, including eminent Palestinians from outside the PNA itself, and which now meets regularly to assist the Ministry of Finance in this important task.
- Under the training pillar, both basic and in-depth on-the-job training were delivered. Teams of internal auditor from the Ministry of Finance executed 10 risk assessment and internal audit assignments for the Ministry of Finance and other ministries under the supervision of the EU-funded technical team, provided by Ernst & Young. A variety of skills were gained, including risk assessment, planning, documentation, applying audit concepts and techniques, reporting and communication. In addition, basic training and on-the-job training were provided to the internal control department.
- Under the manuals and directive pillar, an internal audit charter, a term of reference for the audit committee and an internal audit manual were produced.
In addition, basic training was provided to the Palestinian Financial & Administrative Control Bureau as a prelude to a multi-annual EU programme for this new institution.
The European Union provides assistance to the PNA, through PEGASE, to help build the institutions of the future Palestinian state.
Contact:
Alix de Mauny
European Commission
Tel: 054 802 4915
Mona Masri
Ministry Of Finance
Tel: 0599672069