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

Abstract

Fiscal reporting is the first principle of fiscal transparency. Its main purposeis to present accurate picture of government finance and to providemarkets, legislatures and citizens with the necessary information to holdthe government accountable. Fiscal reporting is expected to give a comprehensiveoverview of fiscal activities of the public sector, provide frequentand regular information on relevant, internationally comparable and historicallyconsistent basis, compiled and disseminated in accordance withthe international standards. In the last two decades significant changes inthis area have begun with the adoption of accrual-based reporting and theextension of the coverage of reports. This paper presents recently developednorms for reporting fiscal statistics and analyses their appliance. Inthe Analyses it is shown that there has been considerable progress in thedevelopment of official public statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet,its National Statistical System is confronted with an increasing number ofnew requirements to align with international recommendations, standardsand best practices. The purpose of this paper is to describe the internationalstandards of government finance statistics, analyse the existing systemof compilation and dissemination of the official public finance statistics inBosnia and Herzegovina, compare the state of its compatibility with internationalstandards and highlight challenges and future direction in thisstatistical area.