Citizen’s Budget Monitoring Guidebook

In cooperation with the Center for Research and Policy making (CRPM), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung published the publication that will help the general public to have a clear overview about the term, phases of the creation of the budget, instruments of collecting finances and the most important control and monitoring of its sustainable implementation.

Monitoring is gathering information; it is systematic and purposeful observation. Information about how the planned projects are implemented and if they are progressing. Monitoring in a second step involves giving feedback. Citizens or civic organizations can and should use the monitoring results to make things better – to suggest improvements. This provides the possibility for the political actors to adjust the course of developments and to react to the citizens needs. Monitoring can also be useful to prevent misuse of public goods. Corruption is a well known phenomenon not only in Macedonia. People in Macedonia are listing it on the top of the country’s problems list. So, monitoring of the budget can determine whether the financial means are well utilized.

We hope that the Guidebook on Monitoring the Budget will be useful to politicians and administrative staff as well as for NGO experts and citizens. We are convinced that it will enable citizens to control the executive and to give recommendations for improvements. In one word: to exercise their civic right as citizens of their state.