A Comparative Study of the Central Administration Budget Preparation Process in Turkey and Sweden

General Information On The Budget Preparation Process In Sweden

Sweden is a Scandinavian country which is ranked in the front of all comfort and peace indexes with respect to money and freedoms. A constitutional monarchy where the King has limited ritualistic roles, the status of the monarchy has become symbolic since the adoption of the Constitution in 1974. Sweden is ruled by parliamentary democracy in which the people are represented by Parliament (Riksdag) at the national level and a one chamber Parliament which consists of 349 members (Regeringskansliet, 2016a). Blöndal (2010) states that Sweden has always been one of the countries implementing the most developed techniques with respect to the budgeting and public administration. Reformist precautions have been taken as a result of budgetary deficits and realization of pre-existing modern drafts. Financial crisis created by budgetary deficits has given rise to more extensive implementation of these precautions in a shorter period.

Sweden moved into the performance-based budgeting system within the context of the reform studies first initiated in 1993. The system requires preparation of 3-year reports so as to exhibit operating results of institutions as part of the objectives set out by those reports (Tüğen, Egeli, & Özen 2010, p. 42). Additionally, some reforms to the system have been made such as monthly monitoring of expenditures; abolition of open-ended allowances (of the social security system); gross budgeting (e.g., expenditures not being offset by income); entering nominal expense ceilings set in a 3-year term; setting expense ceilings for 27 expenditure areas as well as total expenditure (excluding government debit interest) and pension system including social security; evaluation of all governmental organizations in terms of economy and administration (Molander & Jörgen, 2013, pp. 4-5).

The issues shown in Table 1 are of great importance to improve the stability and reliability in the Swedish budgeting process in line with the budget policy (Carlgren, 2016).

Blöndal, 2001, p. 57.