Administrative Status

The Public Finance School (PFS) is a specialized unit in the organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance, established with Council of Ministers Decree № 95/24.04.2003. Its role is to support the management of the Ministry in the implementation of the budget reform and to facilitate the better performance of the financial officers, by developing and providing specialized courses and seminars on the basis of identified training needs.

The PFS has its own training premises in the building of the MoF, including an equipped computer room.

Mission

The mission of the PFS is to facilitate the creation of modern public sector financial administration capable of meeting the requirements for EU membership.

Objectives

• To manage the process of building up sustainable capacity in the public sector financial administration for the needs of the ongoing budgetary reforms;
• To improve and enhance the professional knowledge and skills of the financial administration and facilitate the implementation of contemporary methods, approaches and techniques for financial management;
• To support the process of harmonizing budgetary principles, norms and procedures with the ones implemented in EU member states.

Target groups

• Ministry of Finance staff involved in the budget process;
• The staff of the financial and policy-making directorates at ministries and agencies;
• The staff of the financial and policy-making directorates at the municipalities;
• Managers, financial controllers and internal auditors in public sector organizations;
• Project implementation units for EU Structural Funds at municipalities.

Training

The training of the PFS is organized through:

• Proprietary programmes of the PFS;
• Programmes developed in cooperation with other training centres and international organizations.

Major training areas:

• Public Expenditure Management (for newly-recruited staff)
• Organisation of the Budget Process
• Program and Performance Budgeting
• Public Sector Accounting
• Audit and Financial Control
• Management of EU-Funded Programs and Projects
• European Integration in the Financial and Budgetary Area

Trainers

The leading principle in the training provided by the Public Finance School is “Practitioners train practitioners”.

The trainers are prominent experts from the public administration with significant professional experience.

In areas where broader academic knowledge is needed, we are open for cooperation with academic institutions.

The PFS also interacts with external organizations in order to facilitate the transfer of good practices from countries with leading experience in public sector management.

International Cooperation

The Public Finance School started its operations in close cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Finance under a MATRA-funded project. Within that two-year project capacity for implementing a systematic approach to training was built within the PFS, training programmes were developed, a pool of expert trainers was formed and the latter were trained, both in the area of their professional competences and in their capacity as trainers.

In 2006 an EU Phare Twinning Project “Improvement of the Budgetary Process in Bulgaria” started with the Dutch Ministry of Finance. In this project the Public Finance School will coordinate and implement the training of civil servants in areas related to the bettering of budgetary legislation and practices.

The School successfully interacts with other international organisations as wells, such as the World Bank, The United States Agency for International development (USAID) and bilateral program of EU Member States. Jointly we develop and deliver training specialised courses and seminars. In our training we strive at working with renowned experts in the specific areas in which we want to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the financial officers in Bulgaria.

The Public Finance School is official coordinator for the Ministry of Finance for the trainings provided by the regional Center of Excellence in Finance in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the IMF Institute in Washington. It helps acquainting these institutes with the training needs of MoF civil servants and in selecting candidates for their courses and seminars.