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IV. FOUR NORDIC COUNTRIES

1. Overview

This study covers Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.1

1.1. The legal framework governing budget processes

The common legal framework in each of the four countries is a written constitution and at least one external audit act. These contain several of the main elements of the national budget systems. Denmark and Norway do not have formal specific statutes to govern budget processes. The absence of a budget system law is exceptional among OECD countries. Budget regulations, issued by the Ministry of Finance (Denmark) or by Parliament (Norway), substitute for formal law. Finland and Sweden both have State budget acts, although in Sweden one was only adopted in 1996. Finland has systematically embodied budget principles into law – its Constitution contains a particularly high number of provisions relating to the budget. In the other three countries, there appears to be an arbitrariness in the choice between formal statutes or less formal means of laying out rules for governing budget processes. The need for binding rules appears less pressing in these countries, where achieving consensus is highly valued and entirely necessary, given the multiparty political make-up in each country.

The constitutions generally specify the roles of the main players – Parliament, the executive and distinctive arrangements for parliamentary auditors, where the constitutions provide for external auditors to be elected by Parliaments. Auditors’ mandates and responsibilities are elaborated in laws, several of which have been revised recently (Finland in 2000; Norway in 2004; Sweden in 2002), mainly to clarify the relationship between parliamentary auditors (who are often Members of Parliament – MPs) and the Auditors General who manage the independent State Audit Offices now under Parliament, as well as to enhance their formal independence from the executive branch of government.

Parliamentary rules of procedure (except Sweden, which has a formal law) specify the roles of some important budget actors, notably parliamentary committees. In all countries, local governments play a very important role in implementing budget policies. Accordingly, all countries have adopted various local government laws (Box 1).2

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OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 4 – NO. 3 – ISSN 1608-7143 – © OECD 2004

 

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