Intergovernmental relations as a problem of program budgeting

Abstract

The article shows the possibility of solving the problem of horizontal budget equalization withinthe framework of the Russian model of program budgeting, implemented through the system of federal, sub-federal governmental programs and municipal programs. To achieve this goal, it is proposed to solve two interrelated tasks: increasing the budgetary self-sufficiency of the subjects of the Russian Federation and redistributing intergovernmental transfers in accordance with their socio-economic characteristics. To solve the first task the necessity of providing the process of management (development, implementation and monitoring) of governmental and municipal programs with the proposed measures aimed at ensuring control of the ratio of budget expenditures for the implementation of social and commercial projects is substantiated. These measures should be complemented with a time-limited policy of redistributing intergovernmental transfers, taking into account the different socio-economic situation of the subjects of the Russian Federation. For this purpose, test indicators have been calculated to determine the extent to which the annual dynamics of the actual distribution of the volumes of intergovernmental transfers between the subjects of the Russian Federation for each of the eight federal districts for the period 2000–2018 corresponds to the criterion proposed by us in previous works. Those were the negative value of the Spearman's ordinal correlation coefficient between the variables “the share of non-repayable receipts” and “the budgetary self-sufficiency potential”. An attempt is made to establish a correlation relationship between the calculated values of these indicators and the socio-economic characteristics of the federal districts. It is concluded that for a correct assessment of the impact of governmental program budgetingon regional development, it is necessary to take into account the parameters of programs at all levels of the budgetary system of the Russian Federation in the context of a separate territory, i.e. subject of the Russian Federation or their group.