Openness and transparency of the budget process in Ukraine

Abstract

Introduction. Today the issue of openness and transparency of the budget process is widely recognized as being an important factor in developing the democratic society with a high level of public confidence and strong anti-corruption effect. However, in Ukraine despite the constant change in the direction of increasing the transparency of the public sector, the practical implementation of those principles can be quite a challenge. At the moment, the insufficient disclosure of information to ordinary citizens or information being inaccurate, unclear or irrelevant results in a low level of public confidence. The above mentioned drives the search for effective ways to solve existing problems to ensure the transparency of the budget process in Ukraine. Purpose. The paper aims at disclosure of the peculiarities of the budget process taking into account the principles of transparency and openness, tools for analyzing the state of transparency of the budget process in Ukraine at the national and local levels and justification of the role of the public in the budget process. Results. The results show the shortcomings of the budget process implementation in Ukraine under the lack of transparency and openness at all stages, which manifests in the partial access to information, the lack of public hearings and discussions, and general formalization of public activities. The issue of openness and transparence covers not only the full access to the key data on the use of public funds, which must be provided to citizens, but also on the level of certain simplification of budget data for clear understanding for the unsophisticated citizen. The findings also provide insights into the assessment of the transparency level of the local authorities, the public involvement in the process of drafting, reviewing, approving, implementing and reporting on budget policy, which corresponds to a satisfactory level of transparency due to the partial disclosure of information on the budget process. Originality. The outbreak of positive developments in ensuring a transparent and open budget process at every stage was explained due to the fact that despite the transformation of Ukrainian legislation and approximation to the standards of international institutions the mechanism of public participation in the implementation of budget policy is unclear, the effective budget oversight is not guaranteed, overall resulting in some informational secrecy of budgets, mostly the local ones. Conclusion. Transparency of public and local finance management is one of the most important factors in building a democratic society with a high level of public confidence in government, which helps to increase government accountability by providing objective, relevant, accessible information. The level of budget transparency depends not only on the timely disclosure of key information, but also on the involvement of society in budget management and the ability of citizens to really influence the budget process. Creating a comprehensive integration system functioning in the common information space for budget process management can be considered a key element in Ukraine�s transition to an open and transparent budget system. Key words: budget process, openness, transparency, society, local budgets, E-data, publicity, targeted use of budget funds.