Consultancy-Training Services in Budgetary Oversight and Programme Budgeting to the Parliament of Georgia within the UNDP Project “A strong Parliament in a Consolidated Democracy”

The UNDP project “A Strong Parliament in a Consolidated Democracy” wass aimed at supporting the development of parliamentary capacity in its four areas of constitutional responsibility: lawmaking, setting policy direction, executive oversight, and representation. More particularly, the Project focused on supporting the Parliament to improve its skills and capacities in a better scrutiny of national budget, as well as reinforcing its representational function and raising awareness of the public on the on-going reforms in the area of public finance management.

The Consultancy/Training services were set to reach the objective through providing informational support to the Members and Staff of the Parliament, delivering capacity building trainings to develop their skills in better budget oversight and providing awareness-raising seminar for NGO and media representatives.

The mentioned activity came at a crucial time for the Parliament. In view of the upcoming parliamentary elections in fall 2012 followed by the move of the Parliament from Tbilisi to Kutaisi. The mentioned changes resulted in the renewed composition of MPs as well as the staff. It wass essential that new Members and Staff of the Parliament were acquainted with the reforms taking place during the previous term of the Parliament and well equipped to exercise their oversight functions.

Within the framework of the project PMCG undertook the following activities under three phases:

• Training sessions in Programme Based Budgeting for NGO and media sector;
• Handbook on Georgia’s Budgetary System and Parliament’s Role in the Budgetary Process for new MPs and Staff of the Parliament;
• Training sessions in Public Finance Management, including Budgetary Oversight and Programme Based Budgeting for new MPs and Staff of the Parliament

Specifically, PMCG was responsible to:

• Raise awareness of the non-governmental sector and the media on the essence of program budgeting, the on-going reforms in Georgia and the role of various actors, including the parliament, in the reform through delivering two sessions of training.
• Prepare and draft the handbook on Georgia’s Budgetary System based on the information gathered through preliminary research and meetings with relevant stakeholders in and outside the Parliament.
• Develop training sessions to ensure that the capacities of the newly-elected Members and newly-recruited staff of the Parliament are developed so that the Parliament effectively performs its budgetary and financial oversight function; Parliament’s Budget Office and Budget and Finance Committee representatives are familiar with inclusive budgeting techniques and are better positioned during consideration and scrutiny of the draft budget.