Penza, 23 January 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza region was placed 15th in the 2015 Russian regional budget openness rating, with the 4th place in the Volga Federal District.

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The rating was compiled gradually throughout the past year in four stages.

The first two stages were dedicated to evaluation of the originally confirmed budget and the state of the budget transparency and openness infrastructure, as well as the completeness of the annual budget report. The third stage was dedicated to completion of budget, supervision, and audit. The fourth stage was dedicated to researching the openness of preparation and compilation of the 2016 budget project.

During the intermediary stages, the Penza region was one of the leaders in local ratings for “Budget for Citizens (Annual Completion Budget)” and “Amendments to Budget Law.”

“The Russian regional budget openness rating, based on polling data was requested by the Russian Ministry of Finance, and is compiled by the Scientific and Research Financial Institute in cooperation with the Center of Applied Economics. It implements the best practices and methods used by the International Budget Partnership to calculate the Open Budget Index, with polls adapted to the Russian budgetary legislation,” the press service of the Penza region Ministry of Finances informed PenzaNews agency.