Oksana Markarova: The next stage of the Ministry of Finance's cooperation with international partners is the prompt implementation of laws

On December 3, 2019, the third Ukraine-EU Strategic Dialogue on Implementation of Public Financial Management Reform took place.

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture together with representatives of the European Union discussed strategic directions of reforming the system of public finance management.

The Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova in her welcome speech emphasized the importance of Ukraine's cooperation with the European Union in this direction and thanked the partners for their assistance. "Such a dialogue is very important because an effective system of public finance management (hereinafter-SPFM) is the key to macroeconomic stability and economic growth. SPFM reform is not only enshrined in our strategy for 2017-2020 but it is part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement", the Finance Minister stressed.

Significant progress was achieved in the implementation of the SUDF reform.

Medium-term budget planning

Budget Declaration for 2020-2022 is shaped. It was positively assessed by the technical mission of the International Monetary fund. A balanced budget for 2020 was adopted on the basis of this declaration.

The proposals aimed to develop the legal acts necessary to involve all participants of the budget process in its preparation were elaborated.

Transparency of public finances

In September 2019, a register of projects of international financial institutions was opened, more information on local budgets was published, a dashboard encompassing the costs of higher education was published, a BOOST analytic tool for analyzing budget expenditures was added.

The launch of the E-contract project was announced that will allow to carry out digitalization of contracts concluded through the ProZorro procurement system, and accordingly, to make their automated analysis possible.

Fair customs and tax systems

The State Fiscal Service was reformed instead there have been created two independent institutions, namely, the State Tax Service and the State Customs Service designed to perform their service function effectively. The  Bureau of Financial Investigation will now encompass supervision function that has been earlier assigned to the tax police. This body that will be shortly established will avoid duplication of functions of various law enforcement agencies and will significantly reduce corruption risks when investigating financial crimes.

Public Debt Management

The Ministry of Finance has analyzed the best practices in the world and developed a Medium-Term Strategy for Public Debt Management in a new format.

In order to reduce currency risks, the internal market of government securities is actively developing, the system of interaction with primary dealers is improved, the number of securities in circulation is optimized and their liquidity is increased.

The accession of Ukraine in late May 2019 to the network of the international depository Clearstream, which made the bonds of the domestic government loan of Ukraine available to non-resident investors, became a significant leap forward in the development of the internal market.

At the same time, the reform of the State Audit Service that will be transformed into the Office of Financial Control was launched. The reform of state-owned banks in line with the strategy continues.

86 of the 162 tasks outlined in the Strategy for reforming the public finance management system for 2017-2020 have been fully completed, about 55 are still being completed and 17 are awaiting parliamentary approval.

"We have kicked off developing a new strategy that we plan to prepare in close cooperation with our international partners by March 2020," Oksana Markarova unveiled plans of the Ministry of Finance. According to the Minister, the large number of important bills that have been passed recently create the groundwork for rapid reform of the SUDF system. And the main task of the next stage of the Ministry of Finance's cooperation with international partners is the prompt implementation of these laws. "Implementation" is the word for our next dialogue, " Oksana Markarova  said.

For his part, the Head of Cooperation Programs, Stefan Schleining, noted the rapid pace of important decisions by the state authorities, stressed the need to take into account the quality of these decisions and assured the Ukrainian side of continuing the dialogue and providing the necessary support.

In turn, Stefan Schleuning, Head of Cooperation, the EU Delegation to Ukraine commended the rapid pace of implementation of important decisions by the state authorities and he stressed the need to take into account the quality of these decisions and assured the Ukrainian side of continuing the dialogue and providing the necessary support.