Bulgaria's ambitious program ofreforms in several areas, including public financialmanagement (PFM), focuses greatly on its entry into theEuropean Union (EU). Thus, the country has a well developedsystem, and structure of financial management, that reliesheavily on information technology (such as in the area ofcash management), and has independent external audits, andparliamentary oversight committees. Although many laws, andinstitutional arrangements have been established,institutions still need technical assistance, and trainingto absorb the methods, and international best practices.Bulgaria has significantly reduced the number ofextra-budgetary funds, thereby improving the budget'scomprehensiveness. It has adopted a pilot programmaticapproach in three ministries, strengthening thebudget-policy link, and, created a Treasury Single Accountto service all budgetary institutions. Moreover, the countryhas a strong internal audit body in the form of the PublicInternal Financial Control Agency (PIFCA), and, externalaudits are performed by the National Audit Office, whichsubmits its reports to the National Assembly, with adequateoperational independence, and resources. A key theme in thisCountry Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) andrecommendations, is the need to build capacity to implementthe laws and regulations, while further recommendationsaddress, by and large: development guidelines for planningand evaluating public investments database, and datarecovery plans; establishment of a government-wideinformation technology (IT) function to set benchmarks, anddevelop an IT strategy; revision of the provisions regardingPIFCA's responsibility to introduce internal controlpolicies, and establish preventive control systems;development of training programs in risk assessment; and,development of comprehensive strategies, guidelines andtraining programs for auditing revenues, and IT-based systems.
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