Roubd Table in Puscha Vodytsa

IBSER Experts Join in Discussion of the Main Directions of Budget Policy for 2012

     IBSER General Director Iryna Shcherbyna took part in a roundtable discussion on the topic Local Budgets: Facts and Prospects, held on 17 March 2011, upon the initiative of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VR).

     The event focused on the pressing issues of relations between the State and local budgets and preparing proposals regarding the Main Direction of Budget Policy for 2012.

    The roundtable was attended by the Chairman of VR Budget Committee Valeriy Baranov, Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko, representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, and Housing and Communal Services, as well as from Ukraine’s local government associations and non-governmental organizations.

    The participants discussed the current status and trends in execution of local budgets in 2011, issues related to providing greater incentives to local governments to increase revenue generation for budgets at all levels, as well as raising the efficiency of local budget expenditures. Also, the participants discussed issues related to improving the methodology of estimating and allocating intergovernmental transfers; creating the conditions for attracting investors’ resources based on Public-Private Partnerships for modernization and development, in particular, of the housing and communal services sector; as well as the possibilities for expanding the authority of local governments with regard to local borrowing and granting of local guarantees.

    IBSER took an active part in the debates and provided recommendations intended to strengthen local budget revenues and increase creditworthiness at the local level.

    Based on the meeting’s conclusions, an Interdepartmental Working Group on strategic directions of local budget reform and interbudgetary relations was set up composed of the representatives of the VR Budget Committee, Ministry of Finance, regional and local government organizations, and NGOs. Director Shcherbyna was selected to represent the Budget Institute in the Working Group.