German Budget Process - Budget Guidelines

Budget Guidelines

Specific guidelines established by law govern the creation of the budget. Specifically, these are:

1. Completeness: the budget must include all instances of revenues and expenditures separately.
2. Clarity: the budget must be organized along ministry and functional lines.
3. Unity: the budget must include all revenues and expenditures
4. Accuracy: revenues and expenditures must be estimated based on actual fair market value or expected values. To avoid manipulations, such estimates are conducted by a separate official body.
5. Historical Succession: the budget must be enacted before the fiscal year starts. If there is no budget for the current fiscal year, the previous budget continues in effect.
6. Specificity: expenditures must be designated as falling into a specific area, at a specific time, and at a specific level.
7. Publicity: all debates on the budget in the Bundestag as well as the final enacted budget are publicly available and accessible. Some expenditures, however, may be classified with appropriate restrictions on who can access information on those.