In Focus: PACT Macedonia to Successfully Complete its First Year

The CEF is happy to announce that the Public Accountants Certification Training (PACT) program in Macedonia is celebrating the successful completion of its first year. The closing ceremony took place on October 1, 2013 in Skopje.

The PACT is a regional training program in support of improving and establishing public sector accounting systems and standards in South East Europe. It helps a new generation of public finance staff to contribute to better transparency and accountability, and to develop good governance in general, while raising the status of the accounting profession in line with that of EU member states.

The program has been designed by the British Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the CEF for public sector employees who are engaged in budget preparation or execution, accounting and book-keeping, preparation of financial management information, or financial control. So far, the program has been successfully completed in Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Moldova (under the name of Capacity Building in Public Accounting, CBIPA).

As noted by Adrian Pulham, CIPFA’s Education and Membership Director, “Over 125 years ago, the founders of CIPFA set out a vision to ensure the world’s public services were well managed and transparent. I am very happy to see that those values are being supported in Macedonia through this project, and hope to see the program continue into the future.”

Aleksandra Tekijashki, Program Manager of PACT at the CEF, confirmed the continuation of the program in Macedonia in 2013-2014 with funding from the World Bank and the Central European Initiative (CEI). “We welcome all future students to get on board, and encourage successful first-year students to further enhance their knowledge and continue on the second level to expand the profession of public accounting in Macedonia,” said Ms. Tekijashki.

Certified PACT students (photo by Macedonian Information Agency)

PACT Macedonia was launched in March 2012 with funding from the Slovenian Development Cooperation and the CEI. In-kind contributions were provided by the Macedonian Ministry of Finance and the CEF. The first year of PACT Macedonia involved 35 students and resulted in 69% of them passing the exams.

The closing ceremony and delivery of certificates to students took place on October 1 in the building of the Government of Republic of Macedonia in Skopje, with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Macedonia Zoran Stavreski, Ambassador of Republic of Slovenia in Macedonia H.E. Branko Rakovec, representatives from the Ministry of Finance, CIPFA, and the CEF present.

Further information on the PACT program.