Government Finance Statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How far we have come

Abstract

Fiscal reporting is the first principle of fiscal transparency. Its main purpose
is to present accurate picture of government finance and to provide
markets, legislatures and citizens with the necessary information to hold
the government accountable. Fiscal reporting is expected to give a comprehensive
overview of fiscal activities of the public sector, provide frequent
and regular information on relevant, internationally comparable and historically
consistent basis, compiled and disseminated in accordance with
the international standards. In the last two decades significant changes in
this area have begun with the adoption of accrual-based reporting and the
extension of the coverage of reports. This paper presents recently developed
norms for reporting fiscal statistics and analyses their appliance. In
the Analyses it is shown that there has been considerable progress in the
development of official public statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet,
its National Statistical System is confronted with an increasing number of
new requirements to align with international recommendations, standards
and best practices. The purpose of this paper is to describe the international
standards of government finance statistics, analyse the existing system
of compilation and dissemination of the official public finance statistics in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, compare the state of its compatibility with international
standards and highlight challenges and future direction in this
statistical area.