On 18 April 2019 workshop was held at the premises of world bank in Tirana. Around 30 participants took place in the workshop. There were representatives from all MIS team, AFMIS, IPSIS, EAMIS, representatives of World Bank, from the IT companies who are developing the systems, from Line Ministries as well as consultants hired in the framework IPS. The workshop was led and moderated by Mr. Cem Dener (World Bank Lead Governance Specialist).

The status of development for each system was presented by respective teams and challenges were identified, as well as some actions toward problem solving and identification of key persons to carry the tasks. It was agreed that the deadline to go live will be 1 January 2020. All teams should work toward this deadline.  Such meetings are foreseen to take place monthly to monitor the progress and define tasks and challenged ahead.

A World Bank team visited Tirana during April 15-19, 2019, to provide implementation support to the Integrated Planning System (IPS 2) project (P129332 & P159520), focusing on Component 3 (Development and Integration of Management Information Systems). The Bank team consisted of Ms. Evis Sulko (Sr. Country Operations Officer & TTL), Mr. Cem Dener (Lead Governance Specialist), Orjana Ibrahimi (Procurement Specialist), and Ms. Odeta Bulo (Sr. Executive Assistant). The objective of this visit was to monitor the progress in the implementation of Albania Financial Management Information System (AFMIS), External Assistance Management Information System (EAMIS), and Integrated Planning System (IPSIS), and discuss the project team’s plans for change management activities and possible extension of the project closing date (6-9 months) to ensure successful completion of remaining activities and going live with new systems in 2020.

The Bank team met with the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE), Department for Development, Financing and Foreign Aid (DDFA) at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the National Agency for Information Society (NAIS), and development partners. The team also met with the Department of Public Administration (DoPA) to clarify their plans for HRMIS/Payroll system rollout.  The bank team took part in the donor government workshop held on 17 April 2019 and the technical meeting with focus groups on the next day.  Main findings of this mission as well as recommendation were shared with all high government officials and Minister of Finance and Economy, Mrs. Denaj

Transparency of public finances, fiscal discipline, efficiency in managing and using public resources in order to improve service delivery and economic development, this is what was conveyed by the Minister of Finance and Economy, Anila Denaj, during a meeting organized by the World Bank on 17 April 2019 in cooperation with MFE on the Integrated Public Finance System.

In her speech Minister Denaj highlighted that IPS has started early in time, with the objectives to improve the quality of information and, above all, the quality of decision making.

In 2013, the Albanian government made a self-assessment of the progress and challenges of Public Finance Management, assisted also by its partners, who contributed to the development of a strategy in Public Finance Management reform to address all the gaps this structure.

The vision of the PFM reform strategy was to provide a public financial system, promoting primarily transparency, accountability, fiscal discipline, efficiency in managing and using public resources to improve service delivery and economic development. “Of course, no development can be thought of without modern information technology structures” said Minister Denaj.

The main objective of AFMIS (Albanian Financial Management Information System) is to improve decision making, policy analysis and reporting on the implementation of the Albanian Integrated Planning System. It is a better coordination of donor funds to fully include in the state budget all the needs to coordinate and create information systems, and that of the External Assistance Management Information System (EAMIS), which should manage more effectively and promote responsible and transparent use of the resources of such assistance. This integrated system for public financial management in Albania will be operational for use by all general government units within 2019. The system will be used by more than 4,000 general government employees for two employee training will begin in the coming weeks.

In response to the managerial contribution of the World Bank and the financial contribution of partner countries such as Switzerland, Sweden and the European Union, the Ministry of Finance and Economy has pledged a full commitment to this process.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy will ensure filling the vacancies to ensure that these systems are fully utilized. The training of line ministries is another important factor because they will be the ones populating the data and will need to manage these systems with sequential information.

She concluded her speech by saying that :“It is my personal commitment as a Minister, but I believe it is also to all my colleagues, starting from Mr. Luci as Deputy Minister, who has followed this process and I thank him in particular, as I thank all the contributors, like the World Bank, and all other colleagues who are MFE structures, other central government and local government structures that will be part of this process. If there are problems and issues that need decision-making to solve, we are ready to contribute at any moment”.