Linpico News and Job Opportunities

The Technical Assistance to Fiscal Transition Support Programme in West Africa    managed by Linpico which started in january 2019 and is ending now,

The general objective of the whole project was to support the WAEMU and ECOWAS member states for improving tax management; strengthening measures for tackling fraud, tax evasion and illicit financial flows so as to improve tax revenues; and strengthening the regional and national fiscal transition coordination systems.

Linpico’s team has contributed to the development of regulatory texts intended to consolidate the legal architecture of the ECOWAS customs union and tax harmonisation which have been validated by the ECOWAS Ministers in charge of Finance and Budget during the Ninetieth (90th) Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Council of Ministers held on 6th and 7th July 2023 in Bissau the ECOWAS.

These regulations include :

• Draft Supplementary Act on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters among ECOWAS Member States;
• Draft Regulation amending the list of categories of goods contained in the ECOWAS CET and statistical nomenclature;
• Draft Regulation on the list of exceptions to the Community rules of origin change in tariff heading;
• Draft Regulation establishing an institutional monitoring and evaluation system for the tax transition in West Africa;
• Draft Directive relating to the harmonisation of ECOWAS Member States’ laws on value added tax;
• Draft Directive on the harmonisation of the methodology for the evaluation of tax expenditure in ECOWAS Member States;
• Draft Directive setting out guidelines on the code of ethics and conduct for tax administrations in ECOWAS Member States;
• Draft Directive harmonising the excise duty laws in ECOWAS Member States;
• Draft Directive on the harmonisation of transfer pricing rules in ECOWAS Member States; and
• Draft Directive on the harmonisation of rules on beneficial ownership in ECOWAS Member States.

The 2023 evaluation of the public finance management system of the Republic of Niger implemented by the firm LINPICO for the part financed by the European Union is the fourth after those of 2016, 2013 and 2008. The particularity of this evaluation is that it includes a gender-sensitive public financial management assessment and a climate-sensitive public financial management assessment according to the methodologies developed by the PEFA Secretariat.

The European Union, the French Development Agency and UNICEF funded this assessment and called on independent international experts to conduct it. A college of reviewers including the Government of Niger and the PEFA Secretariat were invited to examine the successive versions of the PEFA report as part of the “PEFA CHECK” quality control process.

The evaluation was coordinated on the Government side by the Ministry of Finance and on the technical and financial partner side by the Delegation of the European Union. A management and supervision team has been set up to coordinate the evaluation and guarantee all the conditions for its success.

The evaluation is carried out by a team of international experts in public finance management made available by the firm LINPICO for the part on EU funding.

The evaluation took place between July 2022 and May 2023 and benefited from data collected during the three field missions. It covers the last three closed financial years, namely 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The purpose of this assessment is to measure the performance of Niger’s public finance management system according to the PEFA 2016 methodology, and to measure the sensitivity of the public finance management system to gender and climate.

This assessment covers the thirty-one domains of public finance management, the nine domains of Gender-sensitive PFM and the fourteen domains of Climate-sensitive PFM. It measures the impact of this management on the following three main objectives of public finance management: (i) overall budgetary discipline, ii) the strategic allocation of resources and (iii) the efficient use of resources for financial purposes of public service delivery.

The Climate Change Act (CCA) 2020 was proclaimed and came into force on 22 April 2021. It proposes a legal framework with a multi-layered institutional mechanism for making the Republic of Mauritius a climate-resilient, low-carbon country. The CCA makes provisions for the creation of a Department of Climate Change (DCC) and Climate Change Units (CCUs) for the mainstreaming of climate change in all sectors. The project entitled “Technical Assistance for an Institutional Gaps and Needs Assessment (IGNA) to implement the provisions of the Climate Change Act 2020 in the Republic of Mauritius” is tasked with proposing an organisational plan for the DCC, including staffing needs, Scheme of Duties, cost of operationalising the proposed organisational structure and capacity development requirements. It also requires the institutional arrangements and human capacity development plan for institutions other than the DCC in Mauritius to be articulated so that these institutions are able to respond to the requirements of Section 16 of the CCA.

The Act aims at addressing the adverse effects of climate change and developing Mauritius into a greener economy. It will also assist Mauritius in meeting its obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and any other related instrument on climate change.

A National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (NCCASAP) (Section 13 of CCA) will be formulated covering the following key adaptation sectors, namely agriculture, biodiversity, coastal zones, infrastructure, the port, marine environment, tourism, fisheries, water and health. Also a National Climate Change Mitigation Strategy and Action Plan (NCCMSAP) (Section 14 of CCA) will be formulated covering the following key mitigation sectors, namely energy, transport, industrial processes and product use, agriculture, forestry, land use, waste management and disposal. Further, Section 15 makes provision of carrying out a national inventory of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on an annual basis.

Two workshops have been held, one in Mauritius on the 3^rd July, 2023 at the Hennessy Hotel. The opening address was given by Hon. Kavydass Ramano, Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change.

A second workshop is being held in Rodrigues at Domaine la Détente on 29^th August.

The conference room of the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), hosted on Wednesday July 19, 2023, the workshop of restitution of the conclusions of the evaluation report of Public Finances according to the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology drawn up by LINPICO’s team of experts. Officially opened by the director of cabinet, Wamata Yambouka, representing the minister Hervé Ndoba who was unable to attend, this restitution workshop saw the participation of representatives of the institutions of the republic, Technical and Financial Partners (PTF) and those of the sectoral departments.

Public finance assessment according to the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology is used to assess the performance of public financial management systems and to identify areas that require improvement.

“The government attaches enormous importance to the legal framework and the institutions responsible for implementing national development policies. For our public finances to fully play the role assigned to them, they must make it possible to better collect domestic revenue, optimize expenditure by directing it towards the priorities of our populations and enable the State to honor all its commitments, including the payment of his debts. To achieve these goals, good governance, transparency and the fight against bad practices must take precedence. said Mr. Wamata.

For Mr. Serge Panaget, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim (ai), representing the Ambassador of the European Union, unable to attend, “This meeting is an important moment for public finance management reforms in the Central African Republic. This is all the more important since effective public financial management (PFM) institutions and systems are essential for implementing national development and poverty reduction policies. Only good PFM can make the link between available resources, service delivery and the achievement of policy objectives. Good PFM ensures that revenues are efficiently collected and used appropriately and sustainably. »

It should be recalled that the first assessment, which took place in 2010, revealed major weaknesses in the management of public finances in the CAR, in particular the credibility of the budget cycle, predictability and control of budget execution, accounting, recording information and financial reports, as well as external control and audit.

In order to improve the efficiency of Public Finance Management (PFM) in São Tomé and Príncipe, the Government has developed a PFM Reform Strategy (ERGFP) for the period 2020-2023. The ERGFP has been structured around 8 Specific Objectives and 8 Operational Programmes, to be achieved by implementing a detailed action plan – PARFIP II.

This project provides the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe and its sectoral technical ministries with advice and technical assistance to achieve the objectives of the ERGFP, through the provision of 2 experts, over the period 2021-2023, in support of the Office for Public Finance Reforms (GARFIP) of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Blue Economy (MFPEA), with 9 out of the 13 scheduled missions that have been implemented, so far.

After a second half of year 2022, during which our technical assistance was impacted by the electoral and post-electoral process in STP, S1-2023 was very active, with a very intense TA support provided to GARFIP and the PFM reforms, in STP.

During S1-2023, our TA team carried out the 3 missions in the country, changing the objective of the second mission this semester, after the decision of the Minister PFEA to postpone the realization of the PEFA Gender and the PEFA Climate (initially scheduled for the month  of September 2023), and provided its continued support to GARFIP, as required by the GARFIP team.

Meetings were held with the government PFM entities involved, and workshops in 5 District Councils were provided, for the improvement of the financial reporting at the subnational level and the improvement of the financial accuracy and timeliness of the consolidated quarterly and annual financial statements of the country.

The impacts of the 2022 legislative elections on the PFM reforms were still felt in the 1st half of 2023, as well as the effects of the limitations on internal resources (due to the absence of an approved Budget) that impacted the process of some “Quick wins” in the DO (in budget preparation) and DT (in SOE’s governance).

However, the GARFIP team continued its work satisfactorily, benefiting from the continuous support of the TA team, streamlining some of the PARFIP II activities, engaging the various PFM teams, as well as adequately reprogramming some of the scheduled activities, with the aim of maximizing the improvements of PFM activities in the country, during the year 2023.

After the new Government took office in November 2022, the new employees demonstrated a strong engagement with the reforms, benefited from the TA action-based training, for the realization of a mid-term self-assessment of the ERGFP, which allowed government officials to align themselves with the importance of PFM reforms and to raise their awareness in relation to gender issues, trough the PEFA Gender training realized by our TA team.

We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the project titled “Capacity Development on Contract Management System for officials in Government of Rajasthan” aiming at enhancing and strengthening the contract management capacity of government personnel to oversee and handle contracts during the entire lifecycle of contract management. To ensure the successful culmination of the project, we have developed a courseware for foundation training program centred on Contract Management and organized classroom training sessions for the 450+ Master Trainers.

On June 8, 2023, Linpico was awarded the management of the AFD 2023 framework agreement – Lot n° 01 – Capacity building in financial governance for a minimum duration of 24 months which can be renewed up to twice 12 months. This international framework agreement provides for a maximum amount of €35,000,000.00 (thirty-five million euros) for the implementation of subsequent contracts (more than €40,000) and purchase orders (less than €40,000 ) for study services and technical assistance in public finance management and state reform.

This framework agreement concerns studies and technical assistance in the field of financial governance. The objective of this framework agreement is to be able to respond more reactively to the needs of AFD’s partners/beneficiaries. The services will support the work of AFD, which finances the economic and social development of nearly 80 countries, as well as Overseas Communities.

Financial governance projects concern the following areas: public expenditure review, preparation of the budget framework, planning and programming of investment expenditure, budgeting, budget management and reporting, mobilization of domestic revenue, public procurement, payroll management, management treasury, debt management, management and keeping of public accounts, external and internal audit and internal control, statistics.

Beyond these main topics, the projects will also give importance to cross-cutting themes such as gender or environmental protection, which are found in almost all areas of intervention: green taxation, analysis of public expenditure with regard to the objectives of combating climate change and reducing gender inequalities; preparation of a green budget. Several of our experts have experience in these areas, in particular through the implementation of the PEFA climate module and the PEFA secretariat’s gender-sensitive public finance management assessment module. Subjects in which Linpico also specializes, having recently carried out several PEFA assessments of this type, in particular the Dominican Republic, CAR, Niger, Kenya, etc.

Missions may take place in all countries where AFD is present, with a focus on French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Linpico is very present in this region, since we set up an office there in 2018, in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), ensuring our links with the communities of experts in the region, and knowledge of local contexts.

Thus Linpico’s experience and regional presence will be an important added value for our consortium to win and manage these future contracts and offer new collaboration opportunities to our experts and partners.

The 2022 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment of the Dominican Republic was conducted at the request of the Government of the Dominican Republic, represented by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), with the support of the Delegation of the European Union in Santo Domingo. The overall purpose of the exercise was to provide the Ministry of Finance and other relevant public sector institutions in the country with an up-to-date, independent, objective and shared assessment of the current performance of the public financial management (PFM) system in the Dominican Republic, including an appraisal of the system’s ability to promote and support the implementation of gender-responsive public policies, using a widely recognized and internationally accepted assessment methodology: the PEFA framework.

The Ministry of Finance led the PEFA assessment exercise through the Vice-Ministry of the Treasury, which was also the focal point for the assessment. The other members of the Reference Group, which coordinated and supervised the exercise, were the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Development, and the Ministry for Women, together with the participating international cooperation agencies. The assessment team comprised three international consultants who are experts in the different public financial management system processes and specialists in the use of the PEFA methodology. This project commenced 25th May 2022 and ended on 1st June 2023.

The assessment used the 2016 revised PEFA framework, approved in February of that year, with 31 indicators and 94 dimensions. In addition, and for the first time, the

PFM system’s ability to support the implementation of gender-responsive public policies was assessed using the Supplementary Framework for Assessing Gender Responsive Public Financial Management approved in January 2020, which includes 9 indicators and 12 dimensions. Finally, the preliminary version of this report was submitted to the peer reviewers appointed by the Reference Group in compliance with the requirements of the PEFA CHECK, the quality assurance mechanism for PEFA assessments. In the case of the Dominican Republic, 39 of the 40 indicators were applicable and could be assessed.

The final Guidelines were approved and successfully presented at a final workshop on April 18th, 2023.

The final report is available on the PEFA website: https://www.pefa.org/node/5128