Improving Budget Transparency (BA0011)

Which public issue does the obligation address? Generally speaking, governments are accountable to their citizens, or at least they should be accountable for their actions and policies. The budget, as the basic instrument enabling the government to implement its policies and plans, is usually very complex and difficult to understand for a large part of the general public. Therefore, it is not only important that the budget is available to the public, but it is equally important that the budget documentation is accessible and understandable to the citizens. According to the results of the International Open Budget Survey (IBP), 2019 Open Budget Index in Bosnia and Herzegovina was only 33 points, out of a total of 100 index points, which ranks Bosnia and Herzegovina among the countries the government of which provides citizens with minimum budget information. According to the survey, the segment of opportunities for citizen participation in the budget cycle was rated the worst, with only seven index points. Public Financial Management Reform Strategy in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021-2025, prescribes continuation of the activities on the preparation and publication of the Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Citizens. At the end of 2020, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of GIZ, prepared and published the first Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Citizens. During the previous year, the following activities were implemented: analysis of the situation in drafting the Budget of the Institutions of BiH for the Citizens, organisation of focus groups’ online meetings attended by the representatives of budget beneficiaries, GIZ, Eda and NGOs, development of the Methodology for preparing the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for citizens and its publication on the website to collect comments from the stakeholders, etc. Comments on this document were submitted by several associations of citizens and non-governmental organisations. In the following year, it is planned to amend the Methodology for preparing the budget for citizens, which will include the definition of guidelines for preparing individual budgets for citizens. This will provide assumptions that the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina prepare the budget for citizens under their competence (concise, understandable and clear content) and publish it on the website, which will enable access to this information. Besides that, in the following year, it is planned to include 10 institutions in the preparation and publication of the budget for citizens, which will provide preconditions for access to more detailed information about their budget. Furthermore, in order to increase the availability of information to the citizens, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina will, as a part of the instruction to the budget beneficiaries, instruct institutions to publish documents (budget request, approved budget, budget execution report, etc.), in accordance with the Proactive Transparency Policy in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The public need for monitoring, visibility and participation of citizens in the process of spending public funds, funds paid by citizens for joint public services and products, is crucial for raising citizens' trust in the work of public administration, but also for their motivation to participate in the process of financing the public services.

What is the obligation? Measure that the institutions of BiH should take is to make information on the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina available to the citizens in a simple, concise and transparent manner, and in a form and content that reflects their interests and needs. Of all 75 institutions, only the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office published the Budget for Citizens on its website. Due to this fact, in 2022 it is planned to include 10 more institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina that will prepare and publish the budget for citizens. The essential idea in the preparation of the Budget for Citizens is to present very complicated, professional and extensive information in a simple, concise and interesting way. The Conclusion of the Council of Ministers of BiH on the Proactive Transparency Policy in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates, among other things, that the institutions of BiH will publish on their websites: budget requests, operational plans, budget execution reports, etc. Due to this fact, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina will, within the instruction for submitting budget requests for 2023, instruct the institutions of BiH to publish the budget requests on their websites based on the guidelines of the BiH Ministry of Finance and Treasury, and enable stakeholders to submit comments. The main objective is: to make citizens competent and interested in participating in the budget process.

How does the obligation contribute to resolving the public issue? Preparation and publication of the Budget for Citizens is a reflection of the best international practices and trends in the field of public finance transparency. Given that the state level government has so far had no significant activities and initiatives in this field, introduction of the practice of publishing documents prescribed by the Proactive Transparency Policy in the institutions of BiH, and preparation and publication of the Budget for Citizens is expected to primarily strengthen the awareness of citizens and public accountability of the government, but also to provide a significantly better rating of BiH institutions on the international scale of budget transparency, measured primarily by the Budget Transparency Index, which will result in the increased trust of citizens, donors and civil society organisations.

Why is this obligation relevant to the OGP values? Relevance of this measure to OGP values is reflected in the following facts: • Through the implementation of this measure/obligation, information on the budget for the citizens will continue to be published, the quality of published information in relation to the needs of the target group will improve and the availability and accessibility of information to the public will be improved. • The obligation will affect creation of preconditions and a favourable environment for the public to be able to influence the decision-making process. By achieving greater transparency and a sense of greater public oversight, the civil servants' accountability to the public for their actions is also expected to be strengthened.

Additional information The purpose of these activities is to improve the budget process transparency by: involving 10 other institutions at the state level in the process of preparing and publishing individual budgets for citizens, publishing documents in accordance with the Proactive Transparency Policy, and continuing to publish and distribute the budget of the institutions of BiH and international obligations of BiH for the citizens, with the information that will be of higher quality and understandable to the citizens and civil society organisations. It is also planned to improve the existing Methodology for budget preparation for the citizens in terms of defining additional guidelines for BiH institutions’ budget preparation for the citizens and providing additional information to the citizens concerning the budget process at all stages of the preparation. The methodology for budget preparation for the citizens with additional guidelines will be the starting point for improving BiH institutions’ budget preparation for the citizens. Activities provided by the Public Financial Management Reform Strategy in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021-2025 would be implemented within the staff capacities of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH. In order to improve the quality of the budget of the institutions of BiH for the citizens, due to the specific competence of the state level institutions, it is possible to engage donors especially in the organisation of workshops where participation of citizens and NGO representatives would be ensured.

Goals/activities

Amendments to the Methodology for budget preparation for the citizens, which will include defining of guidelines for BiH institutions’ budget preparation for the citizens. 1 January 2023 - 30 June 2023

Implementation of activities aimed at involving 10 institutions in the preparation and publication of the budget for citizens, and instructing the institutions of BiH to publish documents in accordance with the Proactive Transparency Policy. 1 January 2023 - 31 August 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Improving budget transparency

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Commitment 4 carries forward a commitment from the previous action plan aimed at introducing ‘budget for citizens’ from only one (currently) to ten additional institutions. While it represents a positive development on transparency, this commitment has modest potential for results, since civil society organizations do not see it being able to expand citizen participation in budget planning and implementation. A Ministry of Finance of BiH official stated that in accordance with the Conclusion of the BiH Council of Ministers on the Policy of Proactive Transparency, the institutions of BiH are required to publish the request for the allocation of funds from the budget. This would increase the likelihood of the commitment to be replicated at other levels of government through standardization of reporting methodology and publication of budget data across institutions and levels. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the information is made available in open data format.