Open and transparent budget process in Western Balkan countries

Nikolov, Marjan and Trenovski, Borce and Dimovska, Gabriela (2015): Open and transparent budget process in Western Balkan countries. Published in: CEA Journal of Economics , Vol. 10, No. 19 (June 2015): pp. 5-21.

Abstract

Budget openness and transparency are key elements of the effective management of public finances, determining the fiscal risks, rational financial decision-making, increasing accountability by policy makers and improving fiscal policies. It is difficult to define budget transparency, and also its measurement is an exceptional challenge. This is because different researchers / institutions use different ways (mostly questionnaires or surveys) to measure the fiscal transparency. Our research is mainly focused on elaborating the openness of budget processes in Western Balkan countries (as a specific group of countries consisted of: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia) dominantly based on a globally accepted methodology designed by Open Budget Partnership (Open Budget Index and Open Budget Survey Tracker), and partly on our own analysis.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: budget transparency, Western Balkans, open budget index
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H1 - Structure and Scope of Government; H - Public Economics > H6 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt; H - Public Economics > H6 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt > H61 - Budget ; Budget Systems; H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government ; Intergovernmental Relations > H72 - State and Local Budget and Expenditures

References

[1] Budget Law of Montenegro

[2] Budget Law of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/pe/BudgetLaws/fbh_budg_law.pdf

[3] Budget Law of the Republic of Albania http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/pe/BudgetLaws/AlbaniaOrganicBudget1998.pdf

[4] Budget Law of the Republic of Croatia http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/pe/BudgetLaws/CroatiaBudgetLaw200.pdf

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[33] Open Government Partnership http://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/commitment/budget-transparency

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[42] The Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly (RS) http://www.parlament.gov.rs/upload/documents/Poslovnik%20Narodne%20skupstine%20-%20precisceni%20tekst%20Sluzbeni%20g.pdf

[43] The Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska http://www.narodnaskupstinars.net/lat/stranica/poslovnik-lat

[44] The Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro http://www.skupstina.me/images/dokumenti/Poslovnik_Skupstine_Crne_Gore_2014.pdf

[45] The Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia http://www.sobranie.mk/delovnik-na-sobranieto-na-republika-makedonija-precisten-tekst.nspx

[46] The Rules of Procedure of the State Audit Institution http://www.dri.co.me/1/doc/Poslovnik-Drzavne-revizorske-institucije.pdf

[47] The Ministry of finance of the Republic of Albania http://www.financa.gov.al/files/userfiles/Programimi_EkonomikoFiskal/Programi_Ekonomik_e_Fiskal/EFP_2014_english_FINAL.pdf