The Republic of Moldova has witnessed improvements as regard public access to central government budget information, according to the Open Budget Survey 2021. The budget transparency score of Moldova rose from 57 in 2019 to 65 in 2021 out of a total of 100. This means the citizens had greater access to information on how the central government raises and spends public resources, which they need to become involved in the decision-making process. The information was presented in a public event, IPN reports.
The given result shows a significant improvement in terms of access to information about budget documents and this places Moldova the 21st out of 120 countries that were included in the rankings, alongside Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and the Czech Republic. Compared with 2019, in 2021 Moldova increased the availability of budget information by increasing the information provided in the In-Year Reports.
Also, the legislature and supreme audit institution in Moldova, together, provide adequate oversight during the budget process, with a composite oversight score of 67 (out of 100). The score is similar to Bulgaria’s and Croatia’s.
Moldova has a public participation score of 11 (out of 100), up from 4, which is closer to the global average of 14. This means the Government managed to increase the citizen’s participation in different stages of the budget process. Moldova’s score is close to that of Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
“We are convinced that the survey presented today will represent a databank for subsequent interventions and transparency increase activities for the Ministry of Finance, the Court of Auditors, Parliament and for the whole public sector so as to ensure the citizen’ access and broader involvement in the decision-making process,” said secretary of state of the Ministry of Finance Vladimir Arakelov.
IMF Resident Representative in Moldova Rodgers Chawani said an open and transparent budget process plays a crucial role in ensuring good governance, increasing the responsibility of involved players and more effectively achieving the development objectives. “By increasing transparency and access to information, the state enables the citizens to become involved in the process of working out and implementing policies and of monitoring the activities of state authorities, contributing this way to increasing the responsibility of authorities and to the country’s development,” stated the official.
Attending the event, Aurica Butnari, project manager at the EU Delegation to Moldova, said the European Union pays special attention to the promotion of an active role of the citizens and civil society organizations in the process of doing reforms related to democracy and good governance. “Transparency in the decision-making process when planning and executing the budget at the local level has been improved the past few years with the EU’s support in the framework of the My Budget Project whose goal was to increase civil society’s involvement at the local level and transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the processes of working out and executing public budgets. Owing to this project, 25 local public authorities created local coalitions with over 750 active members who have approved functioning regulations,” stated Aurica Butnari.
According to Expert-Grup executive director Adrian Lupușor, Moldova’s participation in this assessment exercise is very important as this centers on such key pillars as: governance, transparency, citizens’ participation in the budget process and budget oversight by Parliament and the Court of Auditors. The Open Budget Survey is the world’ s only independent, comparative and fact-based research instrument that uses internationally accepted criteria to assess public access to central government budget information.
The OBS is an independent assessment carried out by the NGO International Budget Partnership. The analysis of the budget process in Moldova for the questionnaire was performed by the independent think tank Expert Grup.
