The findings of the sixth round of the study were presented on Tuesday at the Ljubljana-based Centre of Excellence in Finance.

Mitja Čok of the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics explained that the average budget transparency index for the 102 countries that were included in the 2015 as well as in the 2017 survey had fallen from 45 to 43. This had been preceded by a decade-long period of improvements.

Slovenia is ranked immediately behind Canada and ahead of Germany, being in the group of countries with a transparent budget process.

The top ranks went to New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Georgia, while Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Qatar, and Yemen can be found at the bottom.

The survey also looked at the quality of external budget implementation oversight, with Slovenian getting a very high 80 points in this segment, something that Čok largely attributes to the good work of the Court of Audit.

A third segment was public participation in the drawing up of budget documents. Slovenia fared more modestly here, getting 11 points, which puts it at the level of the global average.

Among the recommendations to Slovenia, Čok highlighted the need to publish budget memorandums sooner and to provide clearer information for the public, including in the reports on budget implementation.

Many recommendations are related to the inclusion of the public and the forming of goal-oriented budget proposals.

Finance Ministry State Secretary Saša Jazbec was on hand to explain the ministry was trying hard to promote the goal-oriented approach, but the key obstacle remained the fact that around 90% of expenditure was tied to legal obligations.

She meanwhile welcomed initiatives for public participation, although she argued this concept was applicable at the local level but hardly at the state level.