Description
The project aims to ensure transparency in public spending. This is needed because Romanian authorities are not accustomed to publishing budget information in a transparent and accessible format, making it difficult for citizens to assess how public funds are spent. The objective of the project is to determine local authorities to make budget data available in a transparent and accessible format. The outcomes of the project are: 1. Monitoring the budget policy for four Romanian municipalities, and publishing the results in a friendly format; 2. Involvement of at least 600 citizens and 20 NGOs in assessing local public spending; 3. Developing the capacity of 10 journalists and 10 people in NGOs to monitor local; 4. Determining several local authorities to publish budget related data in a transparent format. The project shall produce four budget analysis reports, which will be summarized into brochures to be distributed to citizens. A budget monitoring guide, together with a petition to publish budget data in a transparent format, will be sent to 250 local authorities. The beneficiaries are local authorities, citizens, journalists and NGOs.
Summary of project results
Budgetary and financial analysis is perceived as an area reserved to specialists, and not citizens. Citizens find out about municipalities’ investments without knowing how much they cost, if the price paid is correct or whether the investment is in accordance with the local development strategy. Theoretically the budget development reflects the priorities set in extensive public consultations, but in practice the citizens, the businesses and the local NGOs are not involved in making budgetary decisions. So, the project aimed to explain in a friendly format the public spending of four municipalities in Romania (Bucharest's District 6, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi) and to involve citizens and local stakeholders in assessing public spending and monitoring local budgets. Therefore, a friendly monitoring of public budgets methodology was developed, and engaged over 1,600 citizens and 100 stakeholders (NGOs, public institutions, businesses) in debating and monitoring local budgets. The project proved that budgets are key elements for a good governance agenda and citizens’ participation may improve the process. Four booklets (one for each municipality) which explained budget spending in a friendly format, a guide on how to monitor budgets, and four information campaigns for citizens (one for each municipality) on how to assess local budgets were finalised. In the same time, the transparency of local budgets was put under scrutiny in four round tables across the country, and eight recommendations have been issued and sent for implementation to 250 local authorities. A conference put together all the national initiatives aiming to make public spending transparent for citizens. Beside these, a training session was delivered to 18 journalists and 23 NGO activists, and three investigations have been developed and published by the trained journalists during the project life span. The main achievement of the project is that, at the end of the implementation period, the stakeholders are more prepared to engage in budgetary development and consultations.
Summary of bilateral results