Presentation of the Open Budget Survey 2015 Results: Slovenia

Fiscal transparency is essential for good governance and accountability in public financial management. After the latest crisis we have seen new and strengthened standards and diagnostic tools for measuring how transparently a country manages budgets and fiscal affairs. Within nongovernmental organizations, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) has been leading discussions on more transparent budgets and has been since 2006 on 2 years basis publishing results of Open Budget Survey. The latest survey has been published on September 9, 2015, for 102 countries.

The CEF joins presentations of the results and key findings that are being held worldwide by organizing “Presentation of the Open Budget Survey 2015 Results: Slovenia” that offered unique opportunity to discuss the results and open the floor for discussions on more transparent national budgets. On the occasion we cooperated with Mitja Čok, PhD, Full Professor at Faculty of Economics that conducted a survey in Slovenia as an independent researcher. Mr. Čok presented results for Slovenia for the latest period and highlighted that budget transparency in Slovenia is above average compared to other countries. Slovenia is especially strong in execution phase of the budget process.

Given that fiscal transparency has been gaining momentum recently and that is visible in strengthened approach of international financial institutions and in academic research, Ms. Kaja Jurtela from the CEF then presented different international diagnostic tools and initiatives for ensuring fiscal transparency. The central part of the event was dedicated to the panel discussion, where besides Mr. Čok, Ms. Urška Ban, Chair of Committee on Finance and Monetary Policy from Slovenian National Assembly, Ms. Saša Jazbec, Director General for Budget of the Ministry of Finance, Slovenia and Mr. Jorg Kristijan Petrovic, First Deputy President at Court of Audit discussed how different institutions ensure budget transparency and what practices would be needed to fulfill some of the recommendations given by the IBP. They pointed out that Slovenian public should be provided with sufficient information on budget in accessible manner. Also, means of public participation during budget process and budget-related reforms were discussed.

The event was taking place on September 11, 2015, at the CEF.