Ensure Budgetary Transparency (MD0063)

2.1. Opening of transactional data on the execution of the national public budget components, with monthly frequency and disaggregation until the level of the local public authorities
2.2. Develop an interactive framework on the official website of the Ministry of Finance to reflect the process of tax and customs policy development
2.3. Publishing on the Ministry of Finance’s website the estimates of the medium-term budgetary framework and the draft annual budget laws
2.4. Drafting and publishing on the website of the Ministry of Finance the budget for citizens after the adoption of the Budget Law
2.5. Publishing sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets by domains of competence as well as reports on their implementation
2.6. Publication of open data sets on penitentiary system budgets on the data.gov.md portal;
2.7. Publication of information on the implementation of the National Fund for Regional Development and projects from external sources
Responsible institution: Ministry of Finance
Supporting institution(s): Central Public Authorities, the Ministry of Regional Development and Constructions1
Start date: 4th quarter 2016 End date: 2nd quarter 2018

2. Ensure budgetary transparency

Commitment Text:

2.1. Opening of transactional data on the execution of the national public budget components, with monthly frequency and disaggregation until the level of the local public authorities

2.2. Develop an interactive framework on the official website of the Ministry of Finance to reflect the process of tax and customs policy development

2.3. Publishing on the Ministry of Finance’s website the estimates of the medium-term budgetary framework and the draft annual budget laws

2.4. Drafting and publishing on the website of the Ministry of Finance the budget for citizens after the adoption of the Budget Law

2.5. Publishing sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets by domains of competence as well as reports on their implementation

2.6. Publication of open data sets on penitentiary system budgets on the data.gov.md portal;

2.7. Publication of information on the implementation of the National Fund for Regional Development and projects from external sources

Responsible institution: Ministry of Finance

Supporting institution(s): Central Public Authorities, the Ministry of Regional Development and Constructions[Note133: After the Government reorganization in Summer 2017, this Ministry ceased to exist and the responsibilities from this ministry were transferred to the newly-created Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment.]

Start date: 4th quarter 2016 End date: 2nd quarter 2018

Context and Objectives

In 2011 Moldova published a detailed online database of public expenditure[Note134: World Bank, Open Budget Portal, http://wbi.worldbank.org/boost/country/moldova], available on the websites of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the E-Government Center. Officially, MoF follows the international standards[Note135: World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, http://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/sites/default/files/Data/reports/performance_based_budgeting_bb.pdf] for program budgeting. However, an Expert-Grup (NGO) representative stated that data on budget execution is categorized according to economic, and functional-organizational (line-items) criteria, and only upon request on program budgeting.

Although Moldova publishes seven of the eight key budget documents, with the exception of the Mid-Year Review, on data.gov.md, the documents are not easily understandable. Furthermore, agency and ministry websites are often not well developed, despite the guidelines outlined in Government Decision no. 188. The absence of a common webpage structure across institutions makes it difficult to find budget data. According to the interviewed budget data users, disaggregated data are difficult to find: 'A lot of data are collected, but the government doesn’t know how to make them citizen-friendly.' Finally, based on the desk research conducted by the IRM researcher, even if the website of the MoF was modernized in 2017, data are often not published in open data formats; they are either scanned or published as PDFs/excel files.

The Government is making an effort to improve this situation: in addition to the Citizens’ Budget, which has been published since 2015, the MoF website hosts visual aids (e.g., graphs and charts) and provides information on the budget components and the different stages of the budgetary process. However, when assessed on how comprehensive and useful the Citizens’ Budget was, it received a score of 50 out of 100 (or limited).

Additionally, budget data on the penitentiary system has not been published since 2012 on data.gov.md. In the past five years, all relevant documents were published on the website of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions (DPI), but not on data.gov.md.

This commitment addresses the need for budgetary transparency and lists the following activities: 1) open transactional data on the execution of national public budget components on a monthly basis, 2) develop an interactive framework on MoF’s website about the tax process and customs policy development, 3) publish estimates of budgetary framework and annual draft budget laws, 4) draft and publish the budget for citizens, 5) publish sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets, 6) publish open datasets on the penitentiary system, and 7) publish implementation information on the National Fund for Regional Development.

This commitment clearly identifies the topic and location of data to be published, and is relevant to access to information. Although the budgetary process is intensely reviewed and monitored by civil society and mass media, this commitment does not meet the OGP criteria for public accountability since it does not include a mechanism or intervention to translate that information into change.

Overall, this commitment’s potential impact is minor. Although the commitment aims to publish more budget information, its efforts to tackle the current complexity of budget documents are limited in scale. A more transformative commitment would aim to apply a citizen-friendly approach to all budget documents, by establishing an easily accessible location for budget data and expenditure reporting and for publishing data in open format.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that this commitment tackles one aspect of open budget. A truly ambitious commitment would also include greater opportunities for public engagement throughout the budget cycle by the executive, the legislature, and the supreme audit institution. 'The types of tripartite committee meetings which are currently organized don’t represent genuine participation', says an Expert-Grup representative interviewed by IRM staff.

Completion

Overall, the commitment’s completion level is limited. Transactional data on the execution of national public budget components are published monthly on data.gov.md (2.1). In 2017, 12 monthly reports on the execution of the national public budget were published. The reports include data on the central consolidated budget, state budget, social state securities budget, mandatory health insurance funds and local budgets. A new interactive framework for tax and customs policy development was developed in 2017 and launched mid-2017 on the MoF website (2.2). Users can now monitor each stage of the bill (proposal, submission to government, revision, approval), and access the relevant documentation for each stage.

The annual budgetary laws (the medium-term budgetary framework and the long-term budgetary framework) are published annually on the MoF website (2.3). The Citizens’ Budget is published once the budget is approved, or even before and is developed in the context of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement (2.4).

The IRM researcher identified several documents of sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets on the websites of ministries (2.5). However, the documents were not easily identifiable on the website. Since the action plan does not specify the public central agencies this commitment activity covers, the IRM researcher cannot assess completion any higher than substantial.

The publication of open datasets on penitentiary system budgets has not been started (2.6). When the IRM researcher asked why, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions (DPI) stated that they do not have a data.gov.md account. Toward the end of 2017, the DPI requested that the Ministry of Justice (the institution it is subordinated to) provide temporary support.

The IRM researcher was unable to verify whether the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction published information on the National Fund for Regional Development on data.gov.md (2.7). Desktop research did not locate relevant data on the portal, and the IRM researcher was unable to identify the government PoC due to recent government reorganization. Additionally, the vague reference to a timeline in the action plan makes completion difficult to track. For these reasons, the IRM researcher argues that this commitment activity has not been started.

Early Results (if any)

After the first year of implementation, data users and CSOs have expressed discontent with the lack of data in open format, data inaccessibility, and the lack of opportunities for public participation in the budget process. Additionally, the government fails to provide easy-to-understand budget documents for citizens, reducing their incentive to participate in the process. Users of budget data, interviewed by the IRM researcher, confirmed that budget-related information had been sufficiently available in recent years. They also stated that budget data became more aggregated in 2017 and that data publication is sometimes delayed, usually due to political and budget instability, and the lack of good public management in the past two to three years.

Next Steps

Moving forward, the government should expand the scope of this commitment to include activities other than opening data and developing e-government components.

For the next action plan, the IRM researcher recommends the following:

· Continue to develop the MoF interactive framework and add more advanced functions.

· Improve the access to budget information by providing more disaggregated data across budget components and sectors; setting open budget standards to be followed unanimously by all governmental/public central authorities.

· Improve data readability by publishing data in open format and publishing citizen-friendly formats of budget related data across central public authorities.

· Strengthen citizen participation in the budget process, by organizing genuine consultations, information sessions and open communication on budgetary aspects at the national and local budget development level.

2. Ensure budgetary transparency

Commitment Text:

2.1. Opening of transactional data on the execution of the national public budget components, with monthly frequency and disaggregation until the level of the local public authorities

2.2. Develop an interactive framework on the official website of the Ministry of Finance to reflect the process of tax and customs policy development

2.3. Publishing on the Ministry of Finance’s website the estimates of the medium-term budgetary framework and the draft annual budget laws

2.4. Drafting and publishing on the website of the Ministry of Finance the budget for citizens after the adoption of the Budget Law

2.5. Publishing sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets by domains of competence as well as reports on their implementation

2.6. Publication of open data sets on penitentiary system budgets on the data.gov.md portal;

2.7. Publication of information on the implementation of the National Fund for Regional Development and projects from external sources

Responsible Institution: Ministry of Finance

Supporting Institutions: Central Public Authorities, the Ministry of Regional Development and Constructions [69]

Start Date: 4th quarter 2016

End Date: 2nd quarter 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment focused on increasing budgetary transparency through: 1) opening data on the execution of national public budget components on a monthly basis, 2) developing an interactive framework on the Ministry of Finance (MoF)’s website about the tax process and customs policy development, 3) publishing estimates of the budgetary framework and annual draft budget laws, 4) drafting and publishing the budget for citizens, 5) publishing sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets, 6) publishing open datasets on the penitentiary system budgets, and 7) publishing implementation information on the National Fund for Regional Development. However, this commitment did not include a mechanism that would lead to changing government practices related to the communication of budget-related information, and its focus is on publishing more information rather than addressing the complexity of the budget documents, which was identified in the IRM progress report [70] as one of the main concerns of civil society representatives. Also, the commitment did not provide opportunities for public engagement throughout the budget cycle.

Status

Midterm: Limited

In 2017, the MoF published 12 monthly reports on the execution of national public budget components (2.1) on the date.gov.md open governmental data platform. [71] These reports were also published on the webpage of the Ministry of Finance (MoF). [72] As planned, a new interactive framework for tax and customs policy development was launched mid-2017 on the MoF website, allowing the monitoring of each stage of the bill (2.2); the annual budgetary laws were also published in 2017 (2.3) and the Citizens’ Budget was published after the approval of the state budget in January 2018 (2.4). Though the IRM researcher identified several sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets on the websites of ministries, [73] these were not easily findable (2.5). At the end of 2017, two actions were not started: the publication of open datasets on penitentiary system budgets (2.6) and the publication of information on the execution of the National Fund for Regional Development (2.7) on date.gov.md. For more information, please see the 2017 IRM midterm report.

End of term: Substantial

The interactive framework for tax and customs policy development was developed in 2017 and launched mid-2017 on the MoF website (2.2).

The annual budgetary laws (the medium-term budgetary framework and the long-term budgetary framework) are published annually on the MoF website (2.3). The medium-term budgetary framework for 2019–2021 was uploaded on the MoF website in November 2018. [75] The Parliament approved the 2019 budget bill on 23 November 2018, on the first reading. [76] The IRM researcher checked the Budget for Citizens subpage on the MoF website in December 2018, February and March 2019, and the document had not been published at that time. [77] At the moment of publication of this report, the document was already available online.

As during the midterm research, the IRM researcher identified several documents of sectoral spending strategies and annual budgets on the websites of ministries (2.5). [78] However, the location of the documents on the websites was hard to track, as the structure of the ministries’ webpages differ, and there is no consistency in the presentation of information. As the action plan does not specify the central public entities this commitment activity covers, the IRM researcher cannot assess completion any higher than substantial.

The publication of open datasets on penitentiary system budgets for 2017 (2.6) was completed on 11 July 2018, according to the time stamp on date.gov.md. [79] However, the published information was not in open data format, and it contained a general graphic overview of the 2013–2017 budget allocations to the penitentiary system. The government’s intention was to create machine-processable data on penitentiary budgets published on the date.gov.md, which was not achieved. [80]

The IRM researcher contacted several relevant departments, [81] but it was not possible to identify a responsible individual who could provide additional information on the execution of the National Regional Development Fund (2.7). Desktop research did not reveal relevant data on the date.gov.md portal. However, the Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation of Policies Department from the Ministry referred to the general report on the implementation of the National Regional Development Strategy, which is published on the ministry’s webpage and contains information about the National Regional Development Fund. [82] The vague reference to a timeline in the action plan makes completion difficult to track.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

As written, this commitment did not have an effect on opening government with respect to access to information. The commitment mainly included routine reporting activities conducted by the government that occurred before the action plan implementation and did not focus on the implementation of the open data principles [83] or specify sufficiently the timelines of data publication. Budget transparency also refers to the ease of accessing budgetary data, the level of disaggregation, and the accuracy of the information presented, allowing citizens to analyze data, monitor, and provide input on government revenues, allocations, and expenditure. However, many of the data made available under this commitment were not in open data formats, were heavily aggregated, and/or not published as written.

Carried Forward?

The strengthening of budgetary transparency is one of the commitments (commitment 2) carried forward in the new action plan. Thus, the new action plan includes the activity 2.4 of the current plan but also adds new actions linked to the execution of the budget, and the implementation of public procurement contracts.