“We highly appreciate the twinning project “Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight in Public Finances” that significantly contributes to the capacity building of the Budget Office and the Budget and Finance Committee and the enhancement of parliamentary oversight”, - the Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili stated in his speech delivered at the intermediate meeting of the EU-funded twinning project for public services.

The Parliament hosted the EU-funded twinning project for public services “Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight in Public Finances” and the intermediate meeting co-organized with OECD. The Speaker welcomed the delegates and underlined the potential of the meeting in terms of the enhancement of parliamentary oversight in Georgia. Speaker Papuashvili concentrated on the progress of the reforms undertaken for the last decade in oversight of public finances, as well as the adoption and implementation of the Budget and the betterment of the parliamentary oversight process. As he highlighted, it is the right project at the right time since Georgia exerts to establish the institutional system and procedures in the European tenor. Per the Speaker, oversight on the adoption and implementation of the budget is one of the paramount authorities of the Parliament.

“The more effective is the budgetary process management, the more solid is our parliamentary democracy. The reforms undertaken for the last decade resulted in the significant approximation of the legislative base of the Budget Office with the OECD principles”.

He thanked the EU twinning project and the OECD for an extremely interesting opportunity and thanked the Budget Office team for their efforts.

“The intermediate meeting of the twinning project and the wide range of the delegates attending the meeting today constitutes an excellent opportunity for establishing links and sharing the best practice. Engagement of the Budget Offices and independent fiscal institutions of the Parliaments of the USA, Central, East, and South-East Europe, getting cognizant of their experience in budgeting and oversight spheres are of utmost importance for the upholding the compliance of the Georgian Parliament with the European standards. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the EU twinning project and the OECD for this very interesting opportunity. I truly believe that this meeting will be of benefit for the representatives of the Budget Office and the Budget and Finance Committee Staff and facilitate further upgrading of parliamentary oversight in Georgia”, - the Speaker noted.

The EU/OECD special meeting in the Parliament was opened by the Chief Operating Officer at the Congressional Budget Office, Mark Hadley; the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Pawel Herczynski addressed the attendees. The budgeting and oversight progress in the CESEE region was underlined at the meeting, dwelt by the Head of the OECD Regional Network of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European Countries Senior Budget Officials, Brian Finn.

The twinning project is the first EU-funded project for public services that is conducted in the Georgian Parliament. It complies with the EU-Georgia Association Agreement commitments and aims at the building of the analytical capacity and visibility of the Budget Office, as well as the enhancement of communication and cooperation of the Budget and Finance Committee with the parties concerned and the civil society. The project is to escalate the parliamentary oversight of public finances and promote public awareness and civic engagement in public finance-related issues.