59 - International Journal of Public Budget - ASIP - Editor
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59 - International Journal of Public Budget - ASIP |
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Editor’s note There are many factors that affect the public sector, either positively or negatively. Some of them have already been carefully analyzed in this journal. On several occasions we have referred, for instance, to the importance of discipline, responsibility or transparency required to handle the budget in order to legitimate the manner in which resources are used or to the efficiency in management in order to optimize resources. However, the progress made on this subject and the new techniques being developed to administer the public sector often seem innocuous when certain variables of the worldwide economy surprisingly or unexpectedly get out of control, thus generating a strong impact which is difficult for the national governments to handle. The sudden variations in the price of certain raw materials, as in the case of oil, caused mainly by the extraordinary growth of China, affect the public sector performance, either negatively or positively, depending on whether they are countries that import or export such a vital input. The natural disasters that have damaged various countries are forcing countries such as Thailand or the United States, with its public sector already heavily in debt, to restate budgets, with cuts and reassignments, in order to solve the problems that arise from massive emergencies. It is inevitable that national economies and, consequently, public budgets, including those from industrialized countries, are subject to the strong impacts from forces that are a part of globalization or merely from factors difficult to foresee such as massive natural disasters or epidemics. Such erratic circumstances that may dramatically affect the public sector, evidently indicate the true value of the budgetary balance, but also the strategic planning as an instrument to minimize the effect of external factors giving guidance, certainty, foreseeability and well-defined goals to government management. We should not forget the importance of some efforts being made in different parts of the world to modernize budgetary systems. The modernization of systems and the responsible management of public accounts make a significant difference when it comes to facing extraordinary situations, propitiating urgency solutions and maximizing the response capacity of the public sector in emergencies. The International Journal of Public Budget analyzes in this issue different reform experiences that, in reply to some of these problems posed by modernity, have come up with respect to public budgets in different countries, with the intention of offering its readers an extended view of what has happened in the world during the last few years in this specific subject. The important article written by Miguel Fernández Ordóñez entitled Strategic approach of the medium term budget policy in Spain, analyzes several factors that influence the efforts made in that country to improve productivity. This requires prioritizing, as stated by the author, those policies that favor the increase of the potential growth of the economy directing public and private resources towards productive investment, and changing the growth pattern of the last few years which was focused on consumption and investing in residential housing. The article written by Gabriel Filc and Carlos Scartascini titled Budget institutions and fiscal outcomes. Ten years of inquiry on fiscal matters at the Research Department of the Inter-American Developing Bank reviews, in a very interesting way, some of the most relevant works on this topic produced by this organism, gathers new evidence by constructing a new database on fiscal rules and budget procedures, and tests whether budget institutions explain differences on fiscal outcomes. The working paper prepared by Jack Diamond and Duncan Last at the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, entitled Budget system reform in transitional economies: the case of the former Yugoslav Republics, reviews and evaluates the process of budget system reform during the transition period extending from the time the republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia emerged from the collapse in 1989 until the end of 2002. Finally, this issue includes the report prepared by Leandro Despouy entitled Auditing the investment account: the role of the AGN (National Audit Office) in Argentina, which refers to the weak role played by Congress with respect to controls during the last few years and analyzes the regulatory basis upon which the National Audit Office works as a new technical tool from the Legislative Branch. As usual, the International Journal of Public Budget tries to contribute new topics for debate and thereby disseminate among the specialists who work in the public sector the latest approaches on highly interesting subjects. |