Creation of Enabling Environment for Spending Reviews in Russia

Abstract

The article is focused on implementation of spending reviews in Russia. The authors claim that general success of spending reviews in the country depends on certain institutional conditions. Adoption of the order of the Russian Government on the approval of the spending reviews format is viewed by the authors as one of the necessary steps that should be followed by adoption of the regulations and guides set. In particular, operational procedures of working groups should be approved, preparation standards for final reports should be set, leading role of the Ministry of Finance in operational management should be outlined as well as roles and responsibilities of all other stakeholders. Based on the experience of OECD countries, the article states that special information base of spending reviews is also required. It should be different from the base used in programs and project evaluation process because of different purposes of spending reviews and program efficiency evaluation: success of spending review means that proposals for future expenditures reallocation are integrated into the budget process (which is usually not the case with program efficiency evaluation). The authors conclude that implementation of spending reviews should become a part of integrated approach in governance of budget expenditures in Russia, complementing such performance budgeting instruments as project/program effectiveness and efficiency evaluation, monitoring of financial management quality and efficiency auditing.