Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Serbia jumped 14 places according to the Open Budget Index (OBI) for 2015, but is only 47^th among 102 countries, meaning she is among the group of states providing citizens with “a limited amount of information required to understand and analyse the budget”, stated the non-government organization Transparency Serbia on 16 September. Serbia is ranked worst in enabling public participation in the creation of the budget, involving timely provision of information and the option to impact decisions through public discussions.

Transparency notes that the position on this reputable list can be fixed if the citizens were to gain more options to influence planning and monitor budget execution. A greater success, as stated, would also be contributed to if the Assembly were more efficient in its supervisory role and if in practice better access and searchability of data on public expenditures were provided.

The notice states that the poor placement of Serbia in the survey was impacted by the fact that the Fiscal Strategy was not published in the regulated deadline, instead being published along with the proposed budget. The poor index, much like previous years, was also influenced by the fact that the “civil budget” was not published either – a document wherein the budget proposal would be brought closer to the citizens, and neither was the mid-year report on the budget implementation.

Despite these serious omissions, this year’s score is still better than in 2012, when Serbia was 61^st. The improvement in rankings is the result of publishing a greater number of information in the Law on Budget, partly the consequence of useful amendments to the Law on the Budget System from September 2012, the notice adds. Transparency states that it is extremely important to emphasize that in the meantime (2015) Serbia has, for the first time, received a budget fully lead according to the programme principle, impacting an improvement of the score in the future.

Source: Beta, taken from www.euractiv.rs