Innoprom - 2017: USUE presented the best practices of the «Budget for Citizens»

As part of the International Trade Fair "Innoprom-2017", at the venue of the Yekaterinburg Administration, presentation and discussion of the information-analytical system " Public Budget of Yekaterinburg" took place.

The deputy head for strategic planning, economics and finance of the Yekaterinburg Administration Andrei Koryukov raised the issue on how the publicity of the budget should be ensured. "What is necessary to do in order to ensure the professional functioning of the entire financial system, and the society would understand what it is about. This software module provides access to data for those who want to know it and deal with finances. In the end, the teachers of the economic school and students will deal with this document in detail. Some people - in order to understand and promote scientific thought, and others - in order to learn," he said.

According to Olga Sysolyatina, deputy head of the Department of Finance at the Yekaterinburg Administration, the system makes it easy to understand the budget process and ensures openness and accessibility of information on the city budget to all comers. "The system was created to raise awareness of citizens about the main stages of Yekaterinburg budget drafting, its consideration and approval. We publish information on the budget execution to improve the overall budget literacy, increasing the investment attractiveness of Yekaterinburg, as well as to create a positive image of the capital of the Urals," Olga Sysolyatina said.

Within the discussion of the informational and analytical system “Public Budget of Yekaterinburg", reports were delivered by members of two leading economic schools in the Urals: USUE and UrFU. 

Head of the UrFU Department of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Doctor of Economics, Professor Elena Knyazeva in her report "Public Budget: Tactics and Foreign Experience" noted that Yekaterinburg is at the stage of developing partnerships and eleborating solutions, "Citizens need to be involved in the budget process. This will provide confidence in state and municipal authorities and active involvement of public organizations in the topic of municipal finance. In addition, budget funds will be spent expediently and will solve the tasks that the city faces."

The head of the USUE Department of State and Municipal Finance, Doctor of Economics, Professor Evelina Peshina in her report "Best Practices of the ‘Budget for Citizens’ in the Russian Federation" presented modern analytics and told what constituent entities and municipalities of the Russian Federation had achieved since 2014 to the present day.

To date, on the website of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation there is a publically available report on the best practice of the "Budget for Citizens” placed on September 30, 2016.

"We have analyzed the document, saw that all constituent entities and municipalities of the Russian Federation studied it and made appropriate changes to their systems" Budget for citizens." The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation regulates 43 indicators on budget openness. We combined these indicators into 4 main groups: the budget process (14 issues), budget expenditures (5 issues), interaction with citizens (19 issues), and additional parameters (5 issues). The most important criterion is the interaction with citizens, weather they are interested, how often they visit the site, what they look through, and what they offer,” Evelina Peshina said.

Then the speaker presented the results of the analysis conducted by the staff of the USUE Department of State and Municipal Finance, spoke about the shortcomings, gave the best examples in the regions and municipalities of the Russian Federation, and outlined the main trends of development.

Evelina Peshina reported about the intention of USUE to initiate the development of the "People's Budget" on the territory of Ural Federal District as a scientific and educational base. Similar experience is available today in the North-West Federal District from 2013 under the auspices of the European University in St. Petersburg.

"Participatory / People's Budget" means a direct participation of citizens in the distribution of 1 to 10% of the funds of the municipal budget. 

Andrei Koryukov noted the scale and long-term implementation of this proposal, "This is an interesting proposal, it needs to be carefully examined and calculated. If you are talking about one percent, I quickly estimate: out of 39 billion it is 390 million - a big figure."

Let's note, that last year the Department of Finance and Budget of Yekaterinburg for the first time held the contest "Open Budget". Five out of six nominations were won by USUE students. The main objective of the contest is to improve financial literacy and attract public interest to budget issues. The contest is designed to popularly explain to citizens how the budget is formed, what its incomes and expenses are, and what its efficiency is.

For reference:

For Russia, cooperation with OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in the current status of the partner country and in the future in the status of the member country is of paramount importance. Throughout the world, qualitative analytical support of interaction with OECD is one of the priority areas of international cooperation, since it opens access to international top-level expertise, allows participating in the working out of strategic directions for the development of the modern economy, to present national experience in socioeconomic transformations and presenting data on the development of the national economy and its individual sectors in international comparative studies of OECD. 

Russia submitted an official application for membership in the OECD in 1996. However, for more than 20 years, the integration process has not been completed: one of the key obstacles is the requirement for countries to open budget data.

As part of the International Trade Fair "Innoprom-2017", at the venue of the Yekaterinburg Administration, presentation and discussion of the information-analytical system " Public Budget of Yekaterinburg" took place.