SESSION I

The Changing Role of Parliaments in the Budget Process: Comparing Reform Trends and Reform Outcomes

The Key Theme: Recent decades have seen fundamental change in the management of public finances in many parts of the world. Public budgeting and especially parliaments´ role in all stages of the budget process have constituted important reform themes, in the EU, Turkey and beyond. There is, by now, a wealth of diverse reform experiences on which countries can draw as they that seek to improve the manner in which their legislatures deal with budgetary matters. Moreover, international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank support budgetary reform processes in the developing world. In this session, budget reform processes centred on parliaments in the EU member states, Turkey, and other PUIC member countries will be compared and preliminary outcomes discussed.

The subjects to be discussed include: What are the reform trends in the EU member states, Turkey and other PUIC member countries in the field of public finance management and how have they affected parliaments? What results have been obtained and should these results be assessed?

SESSION II

Budgeting and Budgetary Oversight in the PUIC Countries and EU Member States: The Role of Committees

The Key Theme: The characteristics of the budget as a tool for parliamentary oversight have evolved greatly over the years. Significant changes have occurred in the parliamentary budgetary process and, especially in many European countries, we have witnessed a development where the discussions and assessments last longer than before, where more technical support is given, and where parliaments’ powers have increased in the preparation of the budget, the monitoring of its implementation and of its impact, and in dealing with final accounts. Much of this increased parliamentary involvement has fallen on committees, both budget and accounts committees, but often also other standing committees. At the same time, the consideration of final accounts has developed from a legal oversight mechanism into a tool for the oversight of performance. The existence of new budget techniques, such as multi-annual and result-oriented budgeting; accrual based accounting and continuity of providing information about budget implementation have supported this tendency. In this session, the new developments that have occurred in the field of budget oversight and the monitoring function of the parliament and the experiences of the selected countries will be examine and the effectiveness of such oversight in respect to exercising of the power of the purse will be discussed.

The subjects to be discussed include accountability, financial transparency, oversight/monitoring functions of the parliament according to the new understanding of budgeting and the effectiveness of the committees in respect to this matter; new approaches in various countries to budgeting; the evolving relationships between parliaments and Courts of Accounts.

SESSION II (to be continued)

Budgeting and Budgetary Oversight in the PUIC Countries and EU Member States: Parliaments and Supreme Audit Institutions/Courts of Accounts

SESSION III (HALL I)

Roundtable I: Parliaments and Civil Society in Budget Process: Experiences of the PUIC Member Countries

The Key Theme: Over the last decade, the involvement of organised civil society in all stages of the budget process – preparation, decision-making, implementation, monitoring, performance assessment – has intensified in many countries. This development has, at least in part, been connected with new trends such as gender budgeting and social budgeting. Moreover, new communication techniques have encouraged the direct participation of citizens in budget-related parliamentary processes. The Roundtable is designed to encourage critical reflection on new trends in the relations between parliaments and civil society in public budgeting.

SESSION III (HALL II)

Roundtable II: Sustaining Budgetary Reforms: Experiences of the PUIC Member Countries

The Key Theme: Public finance reforms, often promoted by international organizations like the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD, are under way in many PUIC member countries. But the manner in which countries have responded to diverse pressures for change have differed substantially. For this reason, the experiences of the different countries, the problems they have encountered and the solutions they found are of importance for all the countries that have not yet started far-reaching reform processes or seek solutions to maintaining reform commitment and sustaining reform capacity. This session aims to share experiences of PUIC member countries that have successfully managed to sustain reforms and to identify the requirements for making reforms stick.

 

SESSION IV

Assessment of the symposium and taking decisions on the following matters:

• Creating a web site that would increase flow of information among the PUIC member countries, and which would reflect developments in the field of budget reform;
  
  
• Setting up of an institutionalized communication network with the purpose of information sharing among the budget committees of the PUIC member countries;
  
  
• Electing a moderator country that would carry out the communication until the next meeting;
  
  
• Institutionalizing and ensuring the continuity of communication, and forming a committee that would perform the work that is needed for the next meeting.