Towards a Performing European Administrative Space Through Financial Management Instruments: The Case of Public Internal Financial Control

Abstract

The public sector has been engaged for several years in a process of modernization, in order to meet the demands of the “citizen-consumer.” The European Union is undergoing the same process, especially regarding the management of European funds. The financial and economic crisis, characterized by the scarcity of financial resources raised the problem of the accountability of public managers in relation to the use of public money. Consequently, the management of public funds is on the agenda of EU policy makers. In this respect, starting from 2000, the European Commission has created an instrument of control that was also used as conditionality in the negotiations with the former communist states. Nowadays, this model called the Public Financial Internal Control is an obligation of compliance in the chapters of negotiations for the Western Balkans states. We will examine the PFIC model under two aspects: firstly, as a tool of Europeanization by identifying the characteristics of the PFIC and the changes resulted from its implementation in the administrative systems of the EU and Balkans states; and secondly, as an instrument of New Public Management that could be used by the public managers within the European Administrative Space in order to assess their organizational performance.

Keywords: public financial internal control, Europeanization, performance

JEL Classification: D73,F36