Implementing financial management and governance in transitional states: reflections on introducing Western normative models of public internal financial control in the new Republic of Kosovo

After an early career in accountancy, corporate management and consulting in England, Bermuda and Canada an opportunity presented itself to embark on a new career in international development consultancy. A series of public finance reform assignments in the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, South East Asia and Southern Africa provided the foundation for my work in the Republic of Kosovo which is the source of the public works that are submitted with this paper. Over a period of four years I was engaged in three projects to introduce the European Union’s Public Internal Financial Control financial governance model to Kosovo, a poor, corrupt new country hoping to gain admittance to the EU. This work involved applying international best practices to developing financial management policy, laws and regulations supported by strategic plans, multi-level capacity building initiatives and a change management strategy to drive future interventions. Taken together these projects represent a uniquely integrated intervention that touched all levels of government and has been independently evaluated as having had considerable positive impact on the development of Kosovo. Despite the positive outcomes, an examination of the limitations of the best practices model encountered in my work and in the observations of various professional and academic commentators, suggests a more effective way forward: developing country-specific, principles-based interventions rather than imposing western normative models, with the involvement of a broader set of actors that includes civil society and informal actors.