Chisinau, Moldova, June 20-22, 2007 – The Ministry of Finance and the World Bank Moldova Office joined efforts in hosting the workshop of internal audit specialists sponsored by the regional network for Public Expenditure Management Peer Assisted Learning (PEMPAL). Chisinau event was the second meeting of the PEMPAL Community of Practice for Internal Auditors (IA COP). This Community of Practice was launched in December 2006 at a similar workshop in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Chisinau workshop gathered a group of 46 internal audit practitioners from 19 countries of the ECA region to provide them with the opportunity to learn from each other by exchanging experiences in developing internal audit function in the public sector. 

The workshop agenda was designed by the COP leadership committee established at the Ljubliana meeting, including internal audit practitioners from Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine. World Bank experts and international consultants supported the work on the agenda. Practitioners from Lithuania, Netherlands and United Kingdom were invited as resource persons for the workshop. The agenda combined plenary discussions and break-out sessions on a variety of topics of primary interest for the community, including the role of internal audit in government, experiences and challenges in developing a public sector internal audit strategy, creating an effective internal audit function in existing inspection units, creating an effective central harmonization unit, human resource challenges in creating an effective internal audit function in government.

Separate session was dedicated to an in-depth discussion of the Moldova strategy for the development of the internal audit function in the public sector being prepared by the Department for Financial Revision and Controls under the Ministry of Finance. Deputy Director of the FRC Department Diana Grosu-Axentii and Deputy Head of the Court of Accounts Gheorghe Cojocari were the key speakers for the session. Their presentations provoked an active plenary debate by all the workshop participants. The panel including the key Moldovan speakers and international experts responded to the questions posed in the presentations.

The workshop received significant attention in Moldova. It was opened by Moldova’s First Deputy Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii, and was attended by the leadership of the Ministry of Finance and the Court of Accounts. Moldova IA COP team especially appreciated the unique opportunity to benefit though this workshop from the multiple practical experiences of the countries that have already a more developed internal audit function in the public sector.

At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed particular gratitude to the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank Country Office organizers for the hospitality and a high level of the event organization.

For more information on this event and the PEMPAL program, please visit 

http://www.worldbank.org/pempal,

or contact: Elena Nikulina at enikulina@worldbank.org , tel. 200-706 (ext. 254)