MOLDOVAN MoF LAUNCHES BUDGET TRANSPARENCY PORTAL

The Moldovan Ministry of Finance has launched a Budget transparency portal (buget.mf.gov.md) permitting to follow the realization of the country's State Budget through the Internet.

MoF State Secretary Tatiana Ivanicichina said at a portal starting ceremony on Tuesday that the website will be useful to interested citizens and to professionals wishing to use more sophisticated instruments for data analysis.

Minister of Finance Natalia Gavrilita said that transparency is one of the incumbent Government's main work principles, and the start of the information portal is a new step to ensuring the transparency of public funds using.

"Data visualization will make our Budget more accessible and will permit to make comparisons and analyses of how public funds are used. We are projecting also other measures to increase transparency. My personal priority is to achieve the using of public funds in a well-founded manner in citizens' interests. For this, the Government's Action Plan stipulates a stronger role to be played by financial inspections and an improvement of the process of state purchasing", said Minister Gavrilita.

The United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Moldova, Dereck Hogan, said the portal launching is evidence that the Moldovan Government is meeting its commitment to ensure a transparent state governance.

The diplomat said that starting from today all citizens will have an access to information about the national budget and all of its components. The portal is intended for various kinds of users, including journalists. In his words, transparency is more than just a publication of information - it is data provision in a convenient and comprehensible form.

Started yet in 2017, the portal preparation has become possible with the assistance rendered by the United States Agency for International Development and a non-commercial organization called The Financial Services Volunteer Corps.