October 2006

Projects

The CFP completed analysis of draft budget-2007 for the city of Moscow. The CFP experts participated in this project within a group of experts that the Moscow government contracted to insight from the NGO community. The CFP analyzed sections related to intergovernmental fiscal relations and budget policy in 2007. The draft budget submitted to the Moscow City Duma with deficit of almost 105 billion rubles. However in the experts’ opinion, the Moscow funds are strong enough, and the situation may change if expenditures for ‘apparatus’ are reduced and the city administrators reasonably use the conjuncture advantages of the city.

The CFP completed the project “Study of sustainability and reliability of the system of public finance management, creation of mechanisms for raising responsibilities of the subjects of budgetary planning for eventual results of the federal expenditures”
Abstract of the report

The CFP entered the USAID Assistance to Russian Orphans (ARO) project to estimate economic cost and long-ru economic effect of the project. The CFP will present the developed methodology in the World Bank in the middle of October
More about this project

The CFP completed the project “Technical assistance in transition to per capita normative-based financing of general education in Saratov oblast”. The developed methodologies and draft regional laws as well as recommendations for the transition period were presented at the completion seminar for the officials of the Ministry of Education and specialists of municipal finance divisions of the oblast
More about this project
Agenda of the seminar

The CFP presented results of the project “Technical assistance to the North Caucasus regions” in the Moscow mission of USAID
Presentation

Budget process in regions

The budget process is either completed or close to completion in all regions of the Russian Federation.

Leningrad oblast reported that in 2007 mechanisms of performance budgeting will be first incorporated in all stages of the budget process.

Deputies of the Rostov-on-Don Duma insist that local portion of the federal tax should be increased for successful implementation of the local governance reform.

Novosibirsk oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai increased expenditures for innovative programs as in their opinion this is the only way to create a base for the increasing social expenditures in future.

And finally, State Duma affirmed the draft federal budget-2007 with minimum debates over it. Media already called it ‘anti-record’. General Director of the CFP Galina Kurlyandskaya spoke at the second parliamentary hearings.
Presentation by G. Kurlyandskaya

Publications

There is three-fold difference in the cost of living across Russian regions; the difference in housing and utilities costs comes to twenty-fold; the difference in the duration of the heating season is nine-fold, the difference in share of active age population is 50% and so on. The need to provide the population with comparable quantity and quality of budgetary services all over the Russian Federation set a problem of creating a system of financial assistance to regional budget.
G. Kyrlyandskaya. Intergovernmental Transfers in Russia

The World Bank Institute published a monograph Budget Federalism Development: International Experience and Russian Practices by the CFP academic editorial. The monograph collects papers of the Russian, American, Canadian, German, and Indian experts that are divided into 7 chapters:

• Budget federalism and decentralization

• Measurement of decentralization

• Decentralization, macroeconomic stability, and growth

• Revenue and expenditure

• Budget process

• Financing and loaning

• Transparency, accountability, and service provision.

The monograph is issued in Russian by the official publisher of the WBI Ves Mir. Introductory chapter to the monograph Intergovernmental Design in Russia: An Overview is written by Migel O. De Silva, World Bank Institute, and Galina Kurlyandskaya, Center for Fiscal Policy.
English version of Intergovernmental Design in Russia

Upcoming events

In November 13-17, 2006 the CFP conducts the last seminar out of the training course for the local leaders and specialists of the financial divisions of the regional administrations of the North Caucasus regions
More about this project

The CFP launches the project in Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous District. The regional Administration contracted the CFP to train local leaders and specialists of the regional administration in the issues of budget and budget policy on local level. The training course developed by the CFP for KMAO consists of 14 theoretical lections and one interactive exercise. The CFP will also offers analysis of 4 reports on the results and general directions of activity (RRGDA) of 4 regional ministries. (These Reports became and obligatory part of the budget process and aim to link expenditures of the public funds to the outcomes for the beneficiaries). The first training seminar will take place in November 27 through December 1, 2006.

The CFP in NIS countries

, Team Leader, IGFR Division Olga Vorontsova spoke at the session of the Advisory Board for Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Reform in the Republic of Armenia with “Adjusting of other countries’ experience in IGFR to the conditions of Armenia”. The CFP assists the Union of Municipal Financiers of Armenia in computing a formula for equalization transfers. The CFP contribution was recognized by the Ministry of Finance of RA and by the international organizations that provide technical assistance to the RA in the area of public finance reform.

The CFP expert Natalia Tipenko is invited to provide deep insight into issues of capital finance and arrangement of financing of education in Republic of Tadzhikistan for international development organizations that are engaged in the public finance reform in this republic.

The Institute of Urban Economics invited the CFP experts the Alexandr Derugin and Olga Vorontsova to participate in the USAID project “Decentralization/Local government program in the Kyrgyz Republic (DLGP)” aimed to

1. Improve Decentralization Policy Framework;

2. Improve Local Government Management;

3. Strengthen Community Participation at the Local Level

In particular, the CFP will contribute to implementation of the national strategy for further decentralization and local governance development; in the making budget process on local level more transparent and local official more accountable to public; in building capacity of local financiers in formulation and implementation of budget policy under conditions of decentralized budget system.