Around €400 million from public funds should be spent more efficiently in health, IT and transport over the next three years thanks to the Value for Money project, according to Finance Minister Peter Kažimír (Smer-SD). Together, these sectors cover almost 40% of public administration expenditures. A preliminary report on the project should be published on Tuesday (July 26), with specific measures expected to be approved by the Cabinet in late September or early October.
"We're not reinventing a wheel, that should be seen as a complete worldwide novelty; we simply want to use the best practices from around the world and from Europe in order to spend taxpayers' money in a better way," said Kažimír. He added that the revision of expenditures project forms part of the Government Manifesto. Decisions on key investments should be based on analysts' opinions and documents. "We're ready to be publicly confronted with opposite opinions of analysts," said Kažimír. He added that even after public confrontation, the Cabinet has the right to decide otherwise. The Government also wants to use part of the analytical conclusions of the report for the budgetary process for the next three years.
