The opening Kick-off event of the European Union Twinning project "Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight in Public Finances" took place at the Parliament of Georgia on 4th of October.
The project will be implemented by the National Academy for Finance and Economics of the Ministry of Finance in close cooperation with the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, the Parliamentary Budget Office of Georgia and Budget and Finance Committee during two years. The project aims to achieve the objectives in direction of strengthening parliamentary oversight in public finances.
The participants of the event were the Chairman of the Parliament, the Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, Acting Head of the Parliamentary Budget Office of Georgia, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, MPs, the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Georgia, the Chairman of the Public Finance Committee of the Dutch House of Representative, Representatives of Government of Georgia, National Bank of Georgia, State Audit Office of Georgia, Non-governmental organizations, partner donor organizations, experts from the Netherlands, staff of the Parliament and others.
The participants of the event were addressed by the Acting Head of the Parliamentary Budget Office, Shorena Kakhidze. She thanked the European Union for this opportunity, for long-term collaboration and for PBO's, as independent fiscal institution's support. She outlined the importance of cooperation with relevant officials of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as the first independent fiscal institution was established in the Netherlands.
She discussed PBO's achievements made with the assistance of the EU in frames of Public Financial Management reforms (PFM), what was indicated in the reports of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Open Budget Survey (OBS). The reports stated that activities of the Parliamentary Budget Office, as an independent fiscal institution, was an example of good practice. She indicated that this Twinning Project which is the first project between the Parliamentary Budget Office of Georgia and the EU member country, will serve as an opportunity to respond to the challenges outlined in the self-assessment document drafted by the PBO with the support of the European Union in 2022 and will assist PBO to better align to OECD international standards. According to her speech, "the outcomes to be achieved as a result of this Twinning Project will encourage Institutional Strengthening of the Parliamentary Budget Office, correspondingly, it will secure strong parliamentary oversight".

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