Slovakia is the 24th best in the world in the openness of the budget process. Budget documents were to be understandable even for ordinary people – INEKO
In 2015, Slovakia regularly improves its public opening score of the budget process. In the current global assessment Open the budget survey, which is published globally today, Slovakia ranked 24th in 2021, which is the best among the Visegrad countries. Nevertheless, there are areas where we are lagging far behind. If we want to reach the top of the world, the following tasks must be fulfilled in particular:
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The government should also publish budget documents in versions that are understandable to ordinary people.
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At the same time, it should involve citizens in budgeting and control.
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It is necessary to find supervision over the budget process by the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic and also the Council for Budget Responsibility.
More detailed conclusions
The openness of budgets is assessed by independent experts in 120 countries around the world according to the methodology of an international organization International Budget Partnership. Globally, it is the only fact-based assessment of its kind and independent assessment. Eight evaluations have been issued since 2008, documenting an improvement in financial process openness by an average of 20% worldwide. The positive trend continued during the covide pandemic in 2020-21.
In the latest evaluation, the countries of Slovakia ranked 24th out of 120. For comparison, Poland ranked 36th, the Czech Republic 39th and Hungary 67th. Georgia, South Africa and Sweden became world leaders in 2021.
The rating of 2021 is based on questionnaire Open Budget Survey with 142 questions, which focused on the transparency of the central government’s budget process, the supervision of non-government institutions and the involvement of citizens in the creation or control of budget documents. In the transparency assessment, Slovakia received 65 out of 100 points, 56 out of 100 points in supervision and 22 out of 100 points in the participation of citizens.
They filled in a questionnaire for Slovakia in 2021 of the analytical institute INEKO. Their evaluation is subject to the control of experts from the International Budget Partnership, a domestic independent opponent, as well as a representative of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic.
Results of the assessment of the openness of public administration budgets for 2021 (at various 0 to 100)
Transparency |
Supervision |
Citizen involvement |
Overall ranking from 120 countries |
|
Slovakia |
65 |
56 |
22 |
24. |
Czechia |
60 |
83 |
15 |
39. |
Hungary |
44 |
57 |
67. |
|
Poland |
60 |
82 |
22 |
36. |
OECD |
67 |
73 |
22 |
– |
The world |
45 |
52 |
14 |
– |
Source: International Budget Partnership
Recommendations for Slovakia
Transparency: To improve the assessment of the transparency of the budgetary process is needed publish a more detailed half-yearly report on the implementation of the general government budget. In July 2020, the Ministry of Finance published a press release with partial information, which, however, does not meet the criteria of the half-yearly report. In particular, data on the government revenue, expenditure and balance at the end of June compared to budget data, year-end estimates, macroeconomic forecasts, an overview of budget changes made and recorded, as well as government debt data need to be included in the document.
In addition, the government should and published documents relating to the general government budget in a version easily understood by ordinary citizens.
The version of the budget for people is partially replaced by the internet portal http://rozpocet.sk/where key data on the approved budget are published in a clear form.
The next step was taken by the government in December 2020, when it published a clear version of the approved public administration – https://www.mfsr.sk/files/archiv/72/Rozpocet_pre_ludi.pdf. This trend needs to be continued for other documents, such as the stability of the program or the draft general government budget. Today, they are legible, especially for experts, and the average person is easily lost in them. It is good international practice for the government to publish these documents in a form that is easy for the average citizen to understand.
Supervision: In order to improve the assessment of the supervision of the budgetary process, rich competencies of the National Council of the Slovak Republic in approving budget documents, as well as significant activities, influence and openness of the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic (SAO) and the Council for Budget Responsibility (CBR). Representatives of the SAO and the CBR, for example, should take part 5 times in at least discussions between parliamentary committees on the most important findings of control, resp. to the proposed objectives with an impact on public finances.
Attendance: To improve citizen involvement, it is necessary organized public participation in the drafting and discussion of key budget documentssuch as the stability of the program, the draft general government budget or the SAO’s opinion on the draft final account. Representatives of non-governmental organizations, resp. Individual citizens, especially from socially or medically disadvantaged groups, should have the opportunity to have an open discussion on selected topics with representatives of government bodies and parliament.
More detailed recommendations can be found here: https://www.ineko.sk/file_download/1709/
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Peter Golias
analyst compiling the evaluation in 2021