First EU twinning project prepared at regional level, Prague 9th January 2004

The Central Bohemia Region is playing a leading role in the new twinning project “Strengthening Public Internal Financial Control at the Regional Level” which has a budget of 0.5 MEUR, 15 mil. CzK. The objective of the project is the implementation of international standards of the public internal financial control at the regional level, which includes the development of internal audit capacity. The twinning project started in November 2003 and will be finished in April 2005. It will be supported by 13 months of technical assistance (1 MEUR, 30 mil.CzK) which should commence in April 2004. Both the twinning and the technical assistance are fully funded by the EU’s 2003 Phare programme.

Ralf Dreyer Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Delegation commented: "With this project one of the most important areas of public administration has been accurately pinpointed. On this evidence the Czech Republic should have a bright future within the EU."

Petr Bendl, the Governor of the Central Bohemia Region commented: “The implementation of the internal audit at the regional level is at the beginning and this project is a very significant step forward.”

The project will be implemented jointly by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic and the Ministry for Enterprise, Trade and Investment of the United Kingdom. Mr. Josef Svoboda, Director of the Central Harmonization Unit for the financial control, is the project leader on behalf of the Czech Republic. Mr. Joe Dobbin, the Pre-accession advisor, worked as a Head of the internal audit at the Department of Finance and Personnel of the Northern Ireland. The Pre-accession advisor is based at the office of the Central Bohemia Region, and during the project duration he will visit and work at all 14 regional self-governing units. The individual components of the project will be first piloted in the Central Bohemia Region and then disseminated to the other self-governing units.

Joe Dobbin, the British Pre-accession Advisor of the project commented: “I am very glad to be able to assist the Czech Regional Administrations with this project and am looking forward to working with Internal Auditors from all regions in achieving a successful outcome to the project.”