Korea case
Public Participation in Budgeting Process
Nov 2, 2013
Young Kyu Kang
What motivated and how could Korea to foster Public
participation?
External background
- Social trend: Citizens’ awareness of and demand for
transparency heightened
Internal motivation
- Consensus for Fiscal reform emerged
- MTEF, PBB and IFMIS introduced during 2003-2007
- Was raised the issue how to set multi-year ceilings of MTEF to
have justification
To meet social trend and justify resource allocation
including ceilings, stakeholders’ participation
mechanisms were devised and aligned with budget
process while pursuing fiscal reforms
Korea’s Public Participation Mechanisms
Open Discussion for the Public
Purpose
Mechanism
For high cost and disputable projects, Budget
authority gets diverse stakeholders’ arguments,
inform the issues to the public and get the opinion
of the public and reflect the results into ceilings
- Each sector addresses two or three agenda
- Panel is consisted of experts, NGOs, government entities (Line
ministries and BO)
- The public can participate and ask questions to the panel
- Entire sessions (90 minutes for each session for the sector)
are broadcasted
Feedback
- Given that number of agenda is limited and
agenda focus on broad policy direction, there’s
an argument that ODP is weak in feed-backing
the results into resources allocation
- However, in medium-term ODP influence resource allocation
ODP feedback on Budget Allocation for Social
Welfare Sector
Methods
- One sector, social welfare, was selected and
traced during 2005-2012
- Most frequent topic were ‘Childcare’ and ‘Public Health
Insurance’ 5 times and 3 times each out of 9 ODPs
- The team compared what have been discussed and what have
been changed in programs and resource allocation
Childcare
- High priority on Childcare in resource allocation
27.2% growth comparing with 8.5%, 2005-13
- Expansion on the target group
low income to all households
- Introduction of monthly allowance
introduced in 2009
Public Health
- Governance reform and incentives for health
providers are required
No big change
- Fiscal stability is needed considering increase in demand
6.2% growth comparing with 8.5%, 2005-2013
Other mechanisms
Meeting with
Local Govt
and Field
Trip
- BO visits and explains the fiscal policy direction
and broad fiscal envelop
- LGs appeal regional project
Fiscal
Advisory
Committee
- BO get opinions from experts, LMs and local
govt. on fiscal matters
Assembly
Expert
Hearing
- National Assembly host experts hearing on
whether the budget draft is proper
- The hearing is broadcasted to the public
Budget
Wastes
Reports
- Budget authority operates call center
- Citizens can report the cases of budget wastes
Public
participation
in Audit
- Citizens can ask audit on specific programs
- The results of audit are informed to the citizen
Thank you
For more details, can be checked out following sites;
PREM Note:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PUBLICSECTORANDGOVERNANCE/Resources/2
85741-1361973400317/GPSM_Korea_v4.pdf
World Bank Blog:
http://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/public-participation-budget-processrepublic-korea