site.btaBulgaria with Score of 71 in 2019 Open Budget Index
NW 16:31:31 29-04-2020
DT1630NW.114
114 ECONOMY - OPEN BUDGET INDEX - BULGARIA
Bulgaria
with Score of 71
in 2019 Open Budget Index
Sofia, April 29 (BTA) - Bulgaria gets a score of 71 out of 100 for budget transparency in the International Open Budget Index for 2019, which is the average value for members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), shows data of the Open Budget Survey, the Institute for Market Economics (IME), which the Bulgarian partner, reported here on Wednesday.
The survey was conducted as part of the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Initiative - a global research and advocacy program to promote public access to budget information and the adoption of accountable budget systems
Bulgaria ranks among the second group of countries in the index with a rating between 60 and 80 points, meaning that this country provides the public with substantial budget information. Bulgaria's ranking has improved significantly since 2006, when its score in the first published Index was 47, increasing up to 66 in 2017 and 71 in the latest 2019 Index.
The Bulgarian Government generally discloses significant information through the broad parameters of fiscal policies in advance of the Executive's Budget Proposal; outlines the government's economic forecast, anticipated revenue, expenditures, and debt, IME noted. A positive trend in recent years is the drafting of the so called Citizens Budgets, which is a simpler and less technical version of the government's ExecutiveТs Budget Proposal or the Enacted Budget, designed to convey key information to the public. Meanwhile, this country could make quick progress by improving the comprehensiveness of the mid-year review, IME said.
The 2019 Open Budget Index shows that most governments across the world do not provide effective possibilities for citizens participation in the budget process.
Bulgaria gets a public participation score of 26 (out of 100), which well-above the global average of 14, but is nevertheless seen as relatively low. Improvements can be made by creating additional mechanisms for actively including civil society in the budget planning stage by the Executive, IME said.
Parliament's capacity for effective participation and control remains low, especially when it comes to the Legislature's control over budget implementation and reporting, IME said, explaining that the Fiscal Council could further reinforce its role by starting to independently assess the government-proposed new expenditure programmes, as well as by participating more actively in the parliamentary committees' discussions. The assessment can be improved through discussions in Parliament of the budget priorities at an earlier stage of the budget process. Another necessary change, according to IME, is the organization of public expert discussions of the National Audit Office's (NAO) report on the implementation of the budget, including by conducting a hearing of NAO's President. Together with this, the specialized budget and finance committee can make its own analysis on the current budget implementation.
Bulgaria's audit oversight score is 83, which ranks it among 71 countries where the mechanisms of control over public finances by an independent audit office are considered adequate. Ensuring that audit processes are reviewed by an independent agency could strengthen independence and improve audit oversight by NAO, IME said. NV/MY
/DT/
DT1630NW.114
114 ECONOMY - OPEN BUDGET INDEX - BULGARIA
Bulgaria
with Score of 71
in 2019 Open Budget Index
Sofia, April 29 (BTA) - Bulgaria gets a score of 71 out of 100 for budget transparency in the International Open Budget Index for 2019, which is the average value for members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), shows data of the Open Budget Survey, the Institute for Market Economics (IME), which the Bulgarian partner, reported here on Wednesday.
The survey was conducted as part of the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Initiative - a global research and advocacy program to promote public access to budget information and the adoption of accountable budget systems
Bulgaria ranks among the second group of countries in the index with a rating between 60 and 80 points, meaning that this country provides the public with substantial budget information. Bulgaria's ranking has improved significantly since 2006, when its score in the first published Index was 47, increasing up to 66 in 2017 and 71 in the latest 2019 Index.
The Bulgarian Government generally discloses significant information through the broad parameters of fiscal policies in advance of the Executive's Budget Proposal; outlines the government's economic forecast, anticipated revenue, expenditures, and debt, IME noted. A positive trend in recent years is the drafting of the so called Citizens Budgets, which is a simpler and less technical version of the government's ExecutiveТs Budget Proposal or the Enacted Budget, designed to convey key information to the public. Meanwhile, this country could make quick progress by improving the comprehensiveness of the mid-year review, IME said.
The 2019 Open Budget Index shows that most governments across the world do not provide effective possibilities for citizens participation in the budget process.
Bulgaria gets a public participation score of 26 (out of 100), which well-above the global average of 14, but is nevertheless seen as relatively low. Improvements can be made by creating additional mechanisms for actively including civil society in the budget planning stage by the Executive, IME said.
Parliament's capacity for effective participation and control remains low, especially when it comes to the Legislature's control over budget implementation and reporting, IME said, explaining that the Fiscal Council could further reinforce its role by starting to independently assess the government-proposed new expenditure programmes, as well as by participating more actively in the parliamentary committees' discussions. The assessment can be improved through discussions in Parliament of the budget priorities at an earlier stage of the budget process. Another necessary change, according to IME, is the organization of public expert discussions of the National Audit Office's (NAO) report on the implementation of the budget, including by conducting a hearing of NAO's President. Together with this, the specialized budget and finance committee can make its own analysis on the current budget implementation.
Bulgaria's audit oversight score is 83, which ranks it among 71 countries where the mechanisms of control over public finances by an independent audit office are considered adequate. Ensuring that audit processes are reviewed by an independent agency could strengthen independence and improve audit oversight by NAO, IME said. NV/MY
/DT/
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