Experts say Moldova’s budget transparency stays at 2012 level
12:56 | 16.02.2016 Category: Economic
Chisinau, 16 February /MOLDPRES/- According to a study launched by Expert-Grup Independent Analytical Centre, Moldova’s budget transparency has registered no progress over the last years, mainly due to political factors. The Budget Transparency Index in Moldova registered 59 out of 100 points in 2015 and stayed unchanged against its position in 2012, which proves that its government offers limited budget information to the wide public.
This score places Moldova on the 27th position out of 100, along with Argentina and Indonesia, being surpassed by Uganda and Poland. New Zealand got the best ranking with 88 points, followed by Sweden and South Africa with 87 and 86 points respectively. At the regional level, Romania succeeded to advance and be placed among the top ten countries of the world, against its 49th position in 2012.
Experts say since 2012 Moldova has improved the transparency of the published approved budget and the annual report on the enforcement of the state budget. However, “Moldova failed to work out of a budget for citizens and a mid-year report”.
The citizens’ participation level was granted 20 points out of 100, meaning that the government fails to involve citizens in the creation of the budget. Moreover, the situation is worse than it was in 2012, when Moldova got 27 points. “The participation of citizens into the budget process is very weak, as authorities cannot provide them with participation mechanisms or fail to use the already existing ones. Thus, citizens’ participation in the monitoring of the budget’s enforcement is limited and basically lacks during its elaboration, approval and enforcement process,” the study’s author, Tatiana Savva says.
Economists believe the political instability Moldova was facing over the last few years has largely caused the stagnation of its budget transparency, destabilizing its budget process as well.
Expert-Grup recommends authorities increase the amount of information included in budget documents in order to improve Moldova’s score and make the budget public for citizens (unveil the budget in a simple format). Authorities should also point out differences between the forecasts and final annual results, unveil multiple macro-economic scenarios, publish a resume of the audit report and make public a mid-year report.
Moreover, the author of the study suggests MPs hold hearings to analyze the state of the economy, set up mechanisms allowing citizens to participate in audit investigations, improve the parliament’s supervision capacity and observe the budget calendar.
(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor M. Jantovan)