Russia aims to be in top-5 for budget transparency - Nesterenko
MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Russia is aiming to be one of the top five countries on the budget transparency index, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko said Thursday at a meeting of the government Open Government coordination commission.
Russia moved up in 2012 from 22 to the top ten on the index, which is compiled annually by the International Budget Partnership.
"First of all it is very important that information on public finances be available to citizens and serve to increase the efficiency of state governance," she said.
The Finance Ministry wants not just the financial indicators of the actual budget to be transparent but also to tie them to specific end results of government spending, in order to create the conditions for improving the operating efficiency of the entire budget management system," she said.
This will require an efficient system of interaction between the information systems of the different departments, uniform rules for classifying non-financial information and the selection of a method of interaction between the different department, she said.
The ministry has already launched a pilot version of a unified budget system portal. There will also be public discussion of the project at the Government Expert Council. Already in 2013 there are plans to implement the entire cycle of formation, consolidation and collection of budget reports into the electronic budget system.
The commission also discussed the issue of federal departments drafting "public declarations of goals and tasks" and proposed that pilot departments be identified (Education and Science Ministry, Energy Ministry, Health Ministry, Natural Resources Ministry, Telecoms Ministry and Emergency Situations Ministry), on the basis of which the project will be tested.
Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov said it is important for ministers not just to publicly announced their priority aims for the year but also to provide the public with the results of the tasks carried out.
The commission discussed the "Russian public initiative," project - a concept to create a mechanism for the public submission of proposals from citizens to be discussed by the government.
The project is being implemented to schedule, Abyzov said. The task force for the project will be expanded and the possibility of expanding the project to regional level will be discussed.
The commission also confirmed that a task force (council) on open information is being set up.
