"The budget is a political, not only a fiscal document"
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Zagreb, 15th November 2014 – Strong team composed of SrÄ‘an Gjurković, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budget, Milorad Batinić, Mayor of the City of Ivanec, president of CPP's Club and Vice President of the Croatian Parliament, and Goran KovaÄević Deputy Mayor of the City of Split moderated in the Academy a seminar on the most important document on the state and local level - the budget.
Introduction to the topic of the budget at the state level gave SrÄ‘an Gjurković and the finale of the seminar was reserved for Milorad Batinić and Goran KovaÄević who spoke about strategic planning, execution and implementation of the budget.
Gjurković began his lecture with the general definition of the budget and during his lecture explained the state budget, its users, functions, principles, structure, income and expenditure account, expenditure by various classifications, measures of shortage or surplus of the state budget and financing account.
Also, below he presented the budget of extra-budgetary users of the state budget, its users,income and expenses and explained to the participants how to get to the consolidated central government budget. Finally he presented the consolidated budget of the general government and its deficit, public debt and general government debt.
"The national budget shows the most important goals of the state, and also serves as an instrument of economic policy that affects the economic situation of the country, specifically on economic growth", noted the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budget during his lecture.
"We can only strategically plan the budget if we analyze the current state in the local government and if we have a vision of how to achieve what we have planned", began Batinić on strategic planning of the budget.
In his speech Mayor of the City of Ivanec placed the importance on the strategy of local development, strategic planning of the budget that can be achieved by analyzing the situation using SWOT analysis. Based on the SWOT analysis we can determine the benefits and opportunities of strategic planning of the budget on the one hand and the disadvantages and dangers on the other hand.
"It is important to establish the vision of the development of local governments, where we see ourselves in the future, and to determine the key development objectives and priorities, which should not be much, but it is extremely important that the emphasis is on those mentioned key development goals. Do not forget that the will of the people is important and it is important to communicate with them to find out what they want and when they want it. „After that you can continue with the process of building policy action plan and program, and how to connect the strategic plan with the budget", noted Batinić.
"The budgetary planning, the connection between the strategic plan and the budget is exclusively a way to proof fiscal responsibility through the participation of the public, including transparency, continuity and accountability. On the other hand it means credibility, capability, quality of political programs and policy, as well as sustainability and risk management in the local government, if you find yourself in this situation", concluded Batinić.
KovaÄević presented the execution and implementation of the budget on the example of the City of Split, where he pointed out how the money comes in the budget, where the money goes and how the money is spent on preschool, elementary school, sports, culture and public fire brigade of the City of Split.
"The question is how a significant part of the city budget is already spent in advance. Accordance with legal requirements, the city is also responsible for kindergartens, schools, museums, theaters, firefighters, sports schools and associations, who for the benefit of the citizens need to function and a large amount of the money is intended just for them", said KovaÄević.
Using the example of his city KovaÄević explained to the participants how the money is spent on social welfare of citizens, municipal services and city administration, pointing out that the budget is the most important tool of development of cities and municipalities.