As of 2002 , with the adoption of the law on public finance (LPF), the Romanian Government appears to have established a comprehensive legal base for appropriate institutions of public financial accountability. The Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) recommends that the Ministry of Public Finance maintain the comparability between the key terms, and definitions used in the European Commission (EC) financial regulation. The newly adopted regulatory framework for budgeting, accounting, internal control, internal audit, and the technical assistance projects in these fields, reflect the Government's efforts to meet international best practices in these areas. The CFAA concludes that in order to accomplish these efforts, the Government needs to reinforce its strategic management of the public financial management (PFM) reform, and recommends the establishment of a cross-ministerial committee-based reform management. The CFAA also addresses the need to closely coordinate technical assistance, and training activities in the field of public financial management. The CFAA recommends the continued reinforcement of the Ministry of Public Finance capacity, to monitor compliance with the rules, and deadlines for budget preparation, while it acknowledges the internalization of the remaining extra budgetary funds, into the framework of the LPF. The CFAA concludes that budget data generally appears to be reliable, noticing budget variances are disclosed. As a general recommendation, the CFAA further suggests the MoPF should continuously review, and consider the need to inform Parliament with timely reports, and updated data, on changes made in budget allocations. The overall impression of the CFAA is that decisive progress has been made in recent years, in modernizing budget practices.
