Budget of the Republic of Macedonia, budgetary process and citizens’ participation Budget preparation process The issue of state budget, as an area that refers to planning revenues and expenditures of the public sector, in Macedonia is discussed only within institutions and academic circles. The public has a very little knowledge in this area. With an intention to contribute to better understanding in this field, the Civic World in the previous issue started presenting the basic concepts related to the state budget, the process of its preparation and the opportunity for the citizens to affect.   Task of the budgetary process Budgetary process is a sum of rules (formal and informal) that enable the government to make decisions that lead to budget preparation, its proposal and approval in the Parliament and its implementation afterwards. In the budgetary process the government defines the basic plan for the budget and within this plan decisions are made for budget resources distribution.   Who are the main participants in the budgetary process? The main participants in the process of preparation and adoption of the national budget are: the Parliament, the Government, the Ministry of Finance, users of the national budget and citizens. The Parliament, as a body that represents all citizens, controls the executive power and realizes the function of a legislative body in the country, discusses about the governmental fiscal policy at a meeting of an appropriate parliamentarian commission and a parliamentarian debate. Only when approved by the Parliament, the costs and policies for collecting revenues become part of the budget for the following year. The Government carries out the policies approved by the Parliament. The role of the Government in the budgetary process is to propose a fiscal policy and define the national budgetary policy in the context of determined economic, social and political goals. The government’s task is to define the measures that are necessary for collecting revenues and to prepare proposals for distribution or allocation of budget funds by individual goals or priorities. The Ministry of Finance is basically one of the budget users, but it also has an important role in the budgetary process. It performs the whole work for the government referring to collecting the resources for the budget and their payment. The Ministry of Finance through its agencies makes a draft and controls the budget, which means it plans and pays attention to public revenues and expenditures. It is responsible for proposals and advice related to a macro-economic frame, fiscal strategy and projections on the inflows in the national budget. Users of the national budget are all institutions, ministries, state agencies and companies that are financed by the national budget. This group involves the Parliament, the President of the state, the government, ministries. The budget users are to use budgetary funds for the purposes they have been financed for. Citizens – we live in a political community where we elect our representatives in the government. They make decisions for all the relevant issues in the country, and the budget, too. The citizens and various governmental and other structures can be actively involved in the budgetary process. Through the media, academic institutions, civil society organizations and interest groups, the public can be involved in a debate for adoption of the budget and allocation of the budgetary funds.   Basic phases of the budgetary process Budget results from a process containing of three phases. First phase: Budget preparation and planning Revenues and expenditures are planned in the first phase. This phase lasts for about six months and starts in April. The Ministry of Finance prepares a report on the macroeconomic and fiscal situation for the current fiscal year and proposes the goals of the fiscal policy. After the government accepts the proposal, these principles of fiscal policy become the basis of the following steps of the budgetary process. In the next step the Ministry of Finance submits directions to the budget users and on their basis they draft the necessary budget funds, simultaneously taking into consideration the funds that are at their disposal and the restrictions. The budget users submit to the Ministry of Finance their proposal demands which are then adjusted to the planned level of the budgetary revenues. Second phase: Budget proposal and approval The second phase is a phase of a parliamentarian debate. In this phase the government discusses on the budget-proposal and the Law on budget execution and not later than 15th November it submits it to the Parliament. The members of the parliament have the right to submit amendments to the budget-proposals that are submitted to all members of the parliament before the beginning of the dispute. The dispute in the Parliament takes place in December. First there is a general debate and then the funds allocated to certain ministries and other budget users are discussed. Eventually the budget is adopted by voting. Third phase: Budget execution The third phase is the budget execution and it includes implementation, supervision and auditing. The budget users use the budgetary funds in accordance with the plan and they are obliged to notify the Ministry of Finance in accordance with its directions.   Before the end of the fiscal year, the Ministry gives directions to all institutions for budget closure. The Ministry of Finance not later than 31st May is obliged to submit annual balance sheet of the budget to the Government. After the Government ascertains the annual balance sheet, it is submitted for consideration and adoption by the Parliament not later than 30th June. Suncica Sazdovska