On April 29, 20101, the city of Orenburg hosted an extended session of the Presidium of the Council (Association) of Municipalities of Orenburg Oblast, where Dmitry Zhigalov, an IUE project manager, made a report and covered the following topics:

• Comprehensive implementation of performance budgeting (PB) tools as a base for reducing expenditures accounting for municipal socio-economic development priorities and people’s needs in municipal services;
• Key components and activities envisaged by the Program (designed by the Ministry of Finance of Russia) on Enhancing the Efficiency of Budget Spending up to 2012: Review of Trends and Comments;
• Financially supported standard of municipal services and standard requirements-based approach to financial support of municipal briefs for municipal services delivery and execution of works – a key mechanism for reducing expenditures of local budgets within the PB model;
• Prospects for the budget network reforms in the light of adoption of the Federal Law “On Making Amendments to Individual Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Necessitated by the Improvement of the Legal Status of State (Municipal) Institutions” and estimate of their potential repercussions for local budget expenditures on municipal services delivery and execution of works.

More than 50 representatives of executive structures of municipalities of Orenburg Oblast took part in the session.