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Budget of the Republic of Macedonia, budgetary process and citizens’ participation
Citizens’ participation in the process of budget preparation
In order to contribute to better understanding of the state budget, budgetary process and citizens’ participation in it, the Civic World has been covering this topic two issues in a row. In this third continuation we present the legal opportunities of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia to affect the budget, as well as a number of other mechanisms used in other countries.
Framework in Macedonia
The legal system in Macedonia does not guarantee citizens’ rights for them to be directly involved in the process of preparation and observation of the state budget. However, the laws do not forbid any independent observation of the state budget execution, which is an opportunity for the citizens to get involved. How much the citizens are prepared and willing to get involved and how much is the observance of state budget on the civil society agenda, is a tricky issue.
The Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia guarantees the right of proposing laws and amendments, the right to affect through the legally elected representatives in the Parliament and the right to access to information (in accordance with the appropriate law). On a national and local level offices are opened for communication between the government and the citizens where they can ask questions, including those related to the budget. Although presented this way, it seems that a basic framework has been established for citizens’ participation, but it is not used enough in practice and a proactive relation is necessary towards this issue by more stakeholders in order to motivate bigger citizens’ involvement.
The Government and the Parliament are responsible for ensuring participation by all interested parties: academic circles, business community, civil society and individuals, and appropriate dealing with their comments as regards the budget. A debate in the parliament is an opportunity to give well-argued proposals to electors’ advantage. The Members of the Parliament are people’s representatives and they are to represent the interests of their voters.
During the budgetary process, the government should ensure transparency and insight in front of the public. The parliamentarian debate and the debates of municipal councils where the state budget and the local self-governments’ budget are discussed, are open to the public. Monthly reports on budget execution are published on the Ministry of Finance’s website.
Important preconditions for increasing citizens’ participation are: improved access to information related to the budget, improved capacities for budget analysis, conversion of budget data into understandable information and improved awareness and knowledge among citizens and civil society organizations.
Review of mechanisms
The World Bank has defined a few mechanisms for participation of the public in the budgetary process and other wider forms of the public’s influence on the state budget, known as “social responsibility mechanisms”.
Participative budgeting
Participative budgeting refers to involvement and consultations with citizens in the course of the budgetary process by including different stakeholders in the process of planning budget’s goals and their quantification and fiscal operations: defining goals, deciding on priorities, developing planned programs for meeting the priorities, mobilizing and generating incomes for financing the priorities, the process of budget approval, its implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This mechanism was first applied in Brazil in 1989.
Independent budget analysis
Independent budget analysis refers to research, representation and dissemination of information that refer to the budget by civil society stakeholders and other stakeholders independent of the government. The goal is to analyze state budget implications on different groups, especially the poor and marginalized, to raise the level of “literacy” of the public in terms of the budget and to inform the policy creators to be able to engage in an efficient debate related to the budget, based on information. This is actually “demystification” of what is usually experienced as a technical and illegible financial document and it is put closer to the public.
Public expenses monitoring
This mechanism is focused on how the public sector spends the money allocated to it. In most of the countries this is usually done by following “entry” instead of “exit”, mainly due to lack of data. The review of costs in the public sector is a technical exercise performed through formal questionnaires or informal “social audit”. Constant involvement of the public is realized in the exercise. The users of certain service themselves (e.g. parents whose children go to school) collect the data on allocated funds for that purpose and their spending, instead of an agency. The results of the exercise are immediately announced in the public and it makes sure the collected findings not end on the civil servants’ desks.
Participative monitoring
Participative monitoring or monitoring in communities is a phase in which the work of chosen public institutions (sometimes the whole government, too) is followed and evaluated, or projects financed by the budget. It enables civil society organizations or groups to control the delivery of public services and to measure the success in the work of certain public institutions, using in advance determined indicators and systems. This also includes monitoring the advancement of projects financed by the Government.
Suncica Sazdovska
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