The Institutional Aspects of Public Finance Consolidation

Abstract

The debate on improving the public finances in Poland has been under way for many years and remains topical. One of the resulting actions has been to change the legal grounds on which they function. This was achieved by the Law on Public Finance of 27 August 2009, which introduced new regulations for the institutional consolidation of the public finances. These were aimed at the liquidation of all auxiliary and state budgetary establishments – as well as most of those at local government level. The paper presents a study of the effects of these changes. The conclusion is that during the first years the law was applied, the liquidation process of some of the non-budgetary management entities was completed successfully. Some of the tasks of these units have been taken over by state and local government budgets, while others have shifted to entities operating in the public finance sector, including executive agencies and newly-established budgetary management institutions. Institutional consolidation has increased the concentration of public resources in the budgetary sphere and led to increased transparency in public finance.