The authors say that revising budgets, which is regarded as an exception and can lead to the resignation of finance ministers and even entire governments in well-organised countries, is a regular topic on the agenda at the start of the year in Croatia.
In the process of adopting the budget, the finance minister states that problems ahead will be solved with a revised budget, with the Opposition criticising the government in the middle of the year for being late in revising the budget, the article reads.
The analysis of the last 11 years shows that changing the budget always meant an increase in the budget spending side: both when revenues increased and when they decreased.
The exception was in 2009 when both revenues and spending items were cut, but the latter's reduction was considerably lower, Bes and Ott said.
In all revised budgets, except for 2009, spending on employees' pay and on social benefits rose, with this trend being more conspicuous ahead of parliamentary elections.
According to Bes and Ott, frequent budget modifications with big changes in revenues, deficit and spending reflected unrealistic planning and failure to take into account real economic trends.
Their study found connections between the revision of state budgets and parliamentary election cycles, so the authors called on budget planners to bear this fact in mind "since politicians cannot control themselves". They said that their analysis had found that public finance planning was poorly organised.