From February 20 to 24, 2017, the Office of Technical Assistance of the United States Department of the Treasury (OTA) will hold a workshop on International Accounting Standards for Public Sector (IPSAS) applicable to Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concession contracts. IPSAS-32 was issued in response to the 2008 financial crisis to improve the way governments around the world represent and report on PPPs. The workshop at the Ministry of Finance will be delivered by two visiting officials from the Office of Budgetary Practices of the Technical Assistance Office, Mike Ablowich, Senior Advisor on Budgetary Practice, and Lori Fleming, Adviser to Public Sector Accounting. The workshop complements USAID’s Public Financial Management program and is aligned with good financial practices promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The workshop is open to all Paraguayan officials working in related financial or budgetary sectors.
This workshop is another example of the collaboration of the Technical Assistance Office of the United States Department of the Treasury with the Ministry of Finance of Paraguay to strengthen the financial sector and the institutions of Paraguay. The Technical Assistance Office has been active in Paraguay since 2003 and has provided a comprehensive framework of technical support in budgetary, economic and banking matters. The Government of Paraguay and the Minister of Finance are now involved in the entire spectrum of technical assistance programs of the Technical Assistance Office in five main disciplines: 1) budget and financial responsibility; 2) revenue policy and administration; 3) public debt issuance and infrastructure financing; 4) Banking and financial services, and 5) transparency and economic crime. In addition to the two visiting experts for the IPSAS workshop, the Technical Assistance Office currently has two permanent technical advisors at the Ministry of Finance focused on cash flow management and infrastructure financing.
For more than twenty years, the Technical Assistance Office has helped many countries to develop and implement market-based financial policies and management practices that support growing economies and stable democracies, through highly experienced resident and intermittent advisors who travel Abroad for short-term tasks
