Budget transparency in Croatian counties, cities and municipalities (November 2018 – March 2019)

The overall average level of budget transparency in Croatian counties, cities and municipalities, expressed as the number of budget documents published on their respective official websites, stands at 3.9 (out of a maximum of 5). The number of budget documents published has grown year by year, so that it now averages 4.9 for counties, 4.3 for cities and 3.8 for municipalities. However, despite the remarkable average results and encouraging trends, only counties (all of them) fully comply with the regulations. A relatively large number of cities and even more municipalities still fail to publish even the legally required budget documents, while an even larger number of cities and municipalities (including as many as three counties) do not follow the Ministry of Finance’s recommendations. Although the publishing of budget documents does not in itself guarantee absolute transparency, it should be both prescribed and encouraged, as an effort towards higher transparency levels necessary for citizens' participation. As long as budget transparency is not adequately regulated and the relevant ministries fail to carry out effective oversight, citizens will largely depend on the local authorities’ goodwill. As shown by improvements in budget transparency achieved so far, there really is a lot willingness in many local governments to act in that direction. It remains to be hoped that the relevant ministries will eventually succeed in regulating and controlling local governments in a more adequate way, that the local governments currently lagging behind will catch up with the more advanced ones and that citizens, associations, the media, union trades, political parties and independent politicians will finally start using the numerous existing budget transparency tools and mechanisms and engage constructively in budget processes. More detailed results for all counties, cities and municipalities are given later in the text and are additionally available on an interactive map and in an Excel table