In 2012, FSVC received funding from the U.S. Department of State under the DF4D framework to implement a 3-year technical assistance program to help increase domestic revenue mobilization and strengthen anti-corruption efforts in the MENA region. The program was designed to reduce corruption, strengthen the quality of public financial management (PFM) and improve the budgeting and quality of expenditures to support the capacity of transition governments to finance local economic development. A total of 22 projects were executed by FSVC under this program in Tunisia and Egypt.
The program was kick started with a regional conference, held in Morocco, on the topic of transparency in public expenditures with participants from Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia in attendance.
Pursuant program activity in Tunisia focused on providing support to government institutions such as the Tunisian Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), as well as a number of civil society organizations to strengthen public financial management systems and improve the relevant audit and governance measures.
In Egypt, two projects were implemented to address methods to streamline government expenditure towards engaging SMEs in public procurement. In this respect, FSVC worked with the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association (EJB) in 2013 to assess the impediments facing the efficient application of the Egyptian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) 10% set-aside procurement law and advocate for sound application of the law directives. FSVC implemented follow-on activity with the EJB in 2014 to support the establishment of an SME Procurement Working Group to provide networking opportunities for SME owners and design media and advocacy campaigns to draw attention to the EJB’s efforts in supporting the wider involvement of SMEs in government procurement.
Program Impact
- Development of a comprehensive communications strategy for the Tunisian MOF to support transparent relay of budget policies, expenditure programs and fiscal measures to Tunisian citizens.
- Supported the Tunisian government in the creation of an effective and independent internal audit function to enhance the quality of public sector financial information
- Delivery of training to 110 public servants from various Tunisian ministries on how they can adopt Results-based budgeting (RBB) and Management Control Systems (MCS)
- Supported a prominent Egyptian CSO in active engagement of SMEs in public procurement and in advocating for simpler SME government tendering processes.