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PROGRESSING FROM BUDGET TRANSPARENCY TO ACCESSIBILITY TO PARTICIPATION - Croatian experience -

Ministry of Finance , Croatia. PROGRESSING FROM BUDGET TRANSPARENCY TO ACCESSIBILITY TO PARTICIPATION - Croatian experience -. Ljubljana, 2017. Content. INTRODUCTION CROATIA & GLOBAL INITIATIVES Open Government Partnership (OGP)

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PROGRESSING FROM BUDGET TRANSPARENCY TO ACCESSIBILITY TO PARTICIPATION - Croatian experience -

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  1. Ministryof Finance, Croatia PROGRESSING FROM BUDGET TRANSPARENCY TO ACCESSIBILITY TO PARTICIPATION- Croatian experience - Ljubljana, 2017

  2. Content • INTRODUCTION • CROATIA & GLOBAL INITIATIVES • Open Government Partnership (OGP) • International Budget Partnership (IBP) – Open Budget Survey • Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) • OPEN ISSUES

  3. INTRODUCTION • In pastyears significant moves were made regarding budget transparency and citizen’s participation in budgetary processes • The number of measures were taken in order to increase transparency and citizen participation in fiscal and budgetary processes mainly due to: • the accession to the EU and global initiatives, • demandsby OECD, IMF and World Bank. • EU: The availability and qualityof fiscal data is crucial to the proper functioning of the budgetary surveillancewhich must entail the regular public availability of such data • A crucial element in ensuring the quality of fiscal data is transparency

  4. CROATIA & GLOBAL INITIATIVES • By joining in global initatives Croatia boosts its transparancy and participation at the national level • More focuse on • the satisfaction and trust of citizens • a better balance between the aspirations of citizens and the possibility of the government to implement more efficient fiscal and budgetary policies • PartofOpen Government Partnership (OGP) initiativefrom 2011 • PartofInternationalBudgetPartnership - Openbudgetsurvey • Part of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and GIFTstewardfrom 2017

  5. OGP in Croatia • A multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance • Main instrument: Action plan for implementation of the initiative OGP • 9 public authority bodies responsible for the implementation of the activities under measures envisaged by the OGP Action Plan

  6. OGP in Croatia • Almost 80 percent of the activities is being caried out by • The Ministry of Finance – responsible for fiscal transparency • Ministry of Administration – responsible for access to information and the use of information technology • Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs is responsible for 6 activities – responsible for initiatives dealing with citizens and citizen participation • Special attention was given to strengthening fiscal transparency – to be more open towards the publicconcerning • the structure and functions of authorities fiscal policy objectives, • public sector account and projections • unhindered access to reliable, comprehensive, timely, and internationally comparable information about the Government activities

  7. OGP in Croatia - fiscal transparency - achievements • Accordingto the review of progress in implementation significant progress was madeinthe past period concearningfiscaltransparency • Overview of the state budget execution by suppliers • publicly available service (application) of the state budget execution by which the users can easily see payments made from the state budget to the specific supplier (using the supplier’s personal identification number - OIB) • publicly searchable database of payments made from the state budget’s single account in accordance with the prescribed budget classifications • InthedraftofthenewAction Plan for implementation of the OGP initiativein the Republicof Croatiait is enviseged to upgradetheapplicationinlinewiththecommentsfromNGOsandwiderpublicsothatithasadditionalfeatures

  8. Publicly searchable database

  9. Publicly searchable database – example

  10. OGP in Croatia - fiscal transparency - achievements • Citizen’s guides about key budget documents are being prepared and published on the web pages of the Ministry of finance – abstracts that are simple and understandable to citizens for key budget documents: • Guidelines for Economic and Fiscal Policy, • the proposed state budget and projections, • budget and projections adopted by the Croatian Parliament, • semi-annual and annual state budget execution • In the draft of the new Action Plan for implementation of the OGP initiativein the Republic of Croatia more focuse on the accessibility of data – possibility of re – use and transform, namely in open data formats

  11. OGP in Croatia - participtive budgeting - achievements • During the last few years much more was done regarding transparency than in the field of participative budgeting • The unusual thing is that participative budgeting is actually more developed on the local level • State level: • pre-budget consultation throught the commission on Fiscal Policy • external experts in the Finance and Central Budget Committee • meetings organized by MoF with macroeconomic experts outside the public sector (during the budgetary proces) • open discussion during the law making process (public consultation, public discussion) • planning of revenues from games of chance is done in cooperation with Interdepartmental committee for the coordination of financing policies for NGO projects and programs (the sessions of the committee sre attended by the NGOs)

  12. IBP in Croatia -The Open Budget Survey • Independent, comparative, and regular measure of budget transparency, participation, and oversight • Covering three aspects of how governments are managing public financesandgiving separate points on eachofthesethree: • Budgettransparency • Budgetparticipation • Budgetoversight • MOF as part of the research process is invited to provide comments on the draft Open Budget Questionnaire that our civil society partners have completed

  13. IBP in Croatia -The Open Budget Survey - achievements • A unique opportunity for the MoF to express comments and provide additional evidence to support the answers to the questions included in the Survey, before the responses are finalized and the Survey results are published • The results of the Open Budget Survey influence the structure and layout of the budgetand in that way directly the work of the MoF

  14. IBP in Croatia -The Open Budget Survey - achievements Example: In Budget layout for 2016. MoFaddedadditionalcolum (execution for thepreviousyear) inlinewiththeOpenBudgetSurveysuggestions

  15. Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) in Croatia • Engagement to promote discussions on advancing the common goal of transparent, participatory and accountable management of fiscal policies and push for increasing fiscal transparency, participation and accountability in our area of responsibility in our country • MoF of the Republic of Croatia is an active participant in GIFT and a steward since beginning of 2017 • Weparticipatedindrafting: • PrinciplesofPublicParticipationinFiscalPolicyand • Guide on PrinciplesandMechanisamsofPublicParticipationinFiscalPolicy

  16. GIFT in Croatia • Often two different views on Public Participation in Fiscal Policy • Government • NGOs • Stronger involvementof government institutions in GIFT and other international initiatives result • in better outcomes of the initiatives • with more „inside” info from the goverment institutions that are in the end owners of the proceses Main reson why goverments should be more involved in GIFT

  17. Open issues • QUESTION OF MOTIVATION • A lot of work to be done with lots of effort • The outcomes often were not valued enough by the public • Example: only few visits to the citizen’s guide to the budget

  18. Open issues • LACK OF IMPLEMENTATION IN PRACTICE - need for the represive corrective measures? • Historical development of the transparency principle in Croatia shows that we have reached high level of transparency set out in the laws and bylaws • We are still facing problems regarding the implementation in practice • Example: In the last amendments of the Budget Act from 2015 the following obligation was introduced: • local and regional governments and budget users and extra-budgetary users are obliged to post their annual financial statements on their internet sites not later than eight days after the date of their submission

  19. Open issues • Although this obligation was introduced,State Audit Office worn that many of the budgetary users do not comply with it • In order to have transparancy in line with the law it is MOF obligation to use corrective mesures that are given to us by the law

  20. Open issues • THE NEED FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF PRINCIPLE AND MECHANISMS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AMONG PUBLIC SERVANTS • NECESSARY METHODOLOGY IMPROVEMENT • The methodology does not foresee unexpected events • Example- early election • in Croatia we had a turbulant political situation for 1,5 years that influenced our budgetary process • the points given in answering certain questions in OBQ were lower due to methodology that does not take this into account

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