The meeting focused on sharing knowledge and experiences related to international practices for the development of Multidimensional (unified) Chart of Accounts (MCoA) for financial, budgeting, statistical, performance, and management reporting purposes. The MCoA was a priority topic identified by FINCOP participants. Mr. Andre Schwaller, Deputy Head Financial Statistics, Ministry of Finance, Switzerland; Mr. João Carlos Fonseca, Principal, IPSASB; Ms. Agnieszka Stachniak, Deputy Director, Accounting and Auditing Department, MoF, Poland; and Ms. Ingrida Muckute, Director of Reporting, Audit, Property Valuation and Insolvency Policy Department, MoF, Lithuania shared international good practices in this regard.

During the meeting, participants worked to develop a good practice MCoA outline and learned about MCoA linkages with IFMIS and the latest developments related to European and International Public Sector Accounting Standards. Participants were informed about the background and purpose of the updated Bank’s REPF toolkit. Country experiences from Lithuania and Austria were also shared which outlined the typical challenges faced in the development of an MCoA and included possible solutions. Speakers from the ZHAW also presented the salient features of the Benchmarking Guide: Integrating Public Sector Accounting and Government Finance Statistics, a knowledge product they supported to develop for the PULSAR program. The Benchmarking Guide presents similarities and differences as well as challenges in implementing statistical reporting and general-purpose financial reporting. In addition, FinCoP participants agreed on the next steps in FinCoP.