Transparency in public life with particular emphasis on local government finance

Abstract

Transparency in public life is a value protected by law in Poland. The article refers in many places to the issue of transparency in the spending of public funds, and consequently building public confidence in public institutions and persons exercising public authority. In the presented material were discussed issues of guarantees that guard the transparency of public life, as well as information about the financial system and principles of operation of financial management in local government units, taking into account matters involving their openness and transparency. Transparency is a fundamental right to obtain information as a public good that is the public information resource. Readers are presented with the legal basis shaping the duties of public authorities, the state of implementation of principles set out in national and international legislation. Municipal self-government has inseparable connection with common property what naturally leads to the need of social control of activities to secure realization of collective public goals. This nature requires that they have the characteristics of transparency which allows, consequently, the possibility of accountability. The public sector that functions closest to the inhabitants are communal governments that carry out the biggest package of tasks of basic importance for the members of self-governmental communities.