As it is not always easy to determine whether a budget document is published on the official websites of counties, cities and municipalities, the level of transparency was measured according to the following criteria:

• Enacted budget – if published on a local government unit’s website or if there is a clearly stated direct link to a website containing that document. If published in a local government unit’s official gazette, it is deemed to be published only if there is a clearly stated direct link to this particular document (e.g. ‘the 2018 budget’) or to the official gazette in which it can be found on the local government unit’s website. Otherwise, the document is not deemed to be published on the local government unit’s website. Such a decision was taken in response to the frequently inadequate searchability of official gazettes.
• Budget proposal – if a document bearing this title is published on a local government unit's website, either as a 'draft budget proposal', or as part of materials for a meeting, or if there is a clearly stated direct link to a website containing that document.
• Mid-year and year-end reports – if published on a local government unit’s website under those titles, or as proposals for (drafts of) mid-year/year-end budget reports, as part of materials for a meeting, or if there is a clearly stated direct link to the websites containing such documents. If published in a local government unit’s official gazette, they are deemed to be published only if there is a clearly stated direct link on the local government unit’s website to these particular documents (e.g. ‘the 2017 mid-year report’), or the official gazette in which they can be found.
• Citizens budget – if any kind of simplified budget documents, intended for citizens, has been published on a local government unit’s website (e.g. “budgets in a nutshell”, presentations, guides or brochures), or if there is a clearly stated direct link to the websites containing such documents.

Publication of the 2017 year-end and 2018 mid-year reports was examined from 15 November to 13 December 2018, and publication of the 2019 budget proposal, 2019 enacted budget and 2019 citizens budget from 4 February to 29 March 2019.

The analysis underlying this map only includes documents that were available on the local government units’ websites on the day they were examined.

According to Article 10 of the Act on the Right of Access to Information, public authorities are required to publish on their official websites, in an easily searchable manner and in a machine-readable form, among other things, annual

• their budget proposal (when submitted to the representative body by the executive body, i.e. by 15 November);
• the enacted budget (when passed by the representative body, i.e. by the end of the year);
• the draft year-end report (when submitted to the representative body by the executive body, i.e. by 1 June for the previous year);
• the draft mid-year report (when submitted to the representative body by the executive body, i.e. by 15 September); and
• a citizens budget accompanying the budget proposal could be printed and/or posted on the websites (by 15 November).

Here you can get all the materials related to the presentation of the local government units' budget transparency results: November 2018 - March 2019.

Newsletter

Statical map of local units

The Institute of Public Finance regularly analyses the budget transparency of counties, cities and municipalities.

The first and second research cycles (2013 and 2014) included all counties and cities and a sample of 100 municipalities (see Newsletters No. 81 and 87). Subsequent research cycles (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) included all 576 local government units (see Newsletters No. 97, 107, 112 and 115), with the available interactive map of all counties, cities and municipalities.

Presentation of this research is supported by: