Administrative, institutional and political budget control: Theoretical aspects with a short overview of some positive law solutions of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The modern state plays a significant role in securing public resources in order to provide them to all of its citizens. The state needs to secure a certain amount of income to perform this function. The institution that best exemplifies that manner in which the state acquires and directs its income is the budget. Given that a budget sets forth the financial plans for a specific period in detail, the process of creating and controlling a budget is very significant. An efficient mechanism of controlling the creation and implementation of the budget needs to exist in order to ensure that the acquired state income is managed to the benefit of the citizens. Budget control can be performed by administrative bodies, independent bodies and the parliament, as the body that adopts the budget and the final financial statement. Thus, the subject of this paper is administrative, institutional and political budget control. Throughout the paper, the author will also provide a brief overview of some positive law solutions from the Republic of Serbia. Administrative control is based on the hierarchical principle, institutional control is performed by auditing institutions, while political control is conducted by the parliament, as the highest representative body.