OPEN BUDGET
According to a survey by the Institute of Public Finance conducted from November 2015 to March 2016, counties turned out to be the most transparent units. In spite of good results, the Croatian County Association has decided, in cooperation with the Coin company, to raise the transparency of county budget data to an even higher level by means of the Open Budget project.
It is the intention of counties to present the data on the budgets of all units in a simple and legible manner in order to inform the citizens about the ways and purpose of budget spending, which has been realized with this project.
The Open Budget project has two basic objectives. One is that all counties, with the help of a simple application, in a completely unified manner open and visualize county budgets per all classifications. The other objective is to allow the county administration to compare local and regional budgets at all levels, as well as economic indicators, in order to kick-start competitiveness, as well as upgrade productivity and efficiency of the work of county administrations. Because of the many novelties this application introduces, this is the first time that a level of self-government has a unified display, which represents a major breakthrough in transparency, even compared to the state administrative level.
What does the application allow?
For citizens:
This application enables citizens to monitor revenue and expenditure per all classifications by means of a basic graphic model and interesting interactive tables that allow budget research at all levels. Furthermore, the application offers a "questions-and-answers" module (questions from citizens requiring only the basic information on the budget and answers to those questions and also "complex analysis" for citizens who want to see everything and compare the data per years).
The same application contains the so-called "compartments" and modules for downloading budgetary documents and documents in computer-readable format, as well as various publications like "Budget in brief," for example. All that is completely in line with the The Law on the Right of Access to Information, as well as the standards set by the Institute of Public Finance.
For county clerks and budget beneficiaries:
The application offers various budget review, analysis, and presentation options to county departments and budget beneficiaries. The budget can be "built" (in the form of charts and tables) for all classifications from this application for each organizational department, as well as for each budget beneficiary. The application allows the download of both tables and charts, which allows everyone to simply and quickly create budget presentations for various needs.
|