This document summarizes the annual meeting of the Budget Control Department, which reviews its activities and seeks to improve its services. The main points are: - The Budget Control Department provides economic analyses, budget reviews, and cost estimates to Israeli parliamentary committees and MPs. - An external review found that the Department is well-regarded but lacks an annual work plan and could take a more proactive role in budget analysis. - The review's key recommendations are to adopt an annual work plan focused on ongoing budget monitoring, increase staff, and strengthen knowledge management between researchers. Following a gap analysis, the Department believes it can implement most recommendations by taking a proactive, information-driven approach to budget oversight.

1. Review of the
Budget Control Department
9th Annual Meeting of OECD Parliamentary Budget Officials and Independent
Fiscal Institutions
Edinburgh, 6-7 April 2017
Mr. Shmulik Hizkiya, Head of Information Division & Chief Knowledge Officer
Mr. Eliezer Schwartz, Senior Economist, Budget Control Department
The Information Division

2. The Department of Budget Control - Background
• Established in 2007, as part of The Research and Information Center
• Its mandate is based on the Establishment Declaration by the Speaker of the
Knesset, approved by The House Committee (November 2007)
• Its formal mandate was given for cost estimates of private laws, set in the
Knesset's “Rules of Procedures”
The Information Division

3. The Department of Budget Control
The Department provides a variety of services - working papers, as well
as advising and giving presentations.
The services are provided at the request of MPs and Committees.
Total
Number of
Documents
Type of
Documents
58%60Budgetary analyses
23%24Economic reviews
8%8Cost estimates
11%11Other
100%103Total
The Information Division

4. Review Process - 2016
This review conducted by Mr. Yarom Ariav, former Director
General of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, focused on the
following issues:
a) The needs of the MPs & Committees for economic and
budgetary research and information.
b) Examination of the work approaches and procedures.
The Information Division

5. Review Process - 2016
• Meetings with Chairman of the Finance Committee and
Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee.
• Meetings with professional and administrative Knesset
employees to gain their perspectives.
• Implementation team reviewed the report.
The Information Division

6. Main Insights
• High professional satisfaction from the Department.
• The budget control department considered very influential
institution.
• The Department is a responsive unit (Passive prioritizing
process) without detailed annual work plan.
• Budget analysis is performed mainly during the budget
approval process.
The Information Division

7. General Aims
• Adopt the OECD's Principles for Independent Fiscal Institutions
(2014) as the preferred guidelines for reaching and assessing the
following goals.
• Positioning our Budget Control Department as an independent entity
and a leader in the Knesset's process of monitoring the budgetary
aspect of the Government’s work.
The Information Division

8. Main Recommendations
• Providing Budget Analysis based on an annual work-plan.
• A more proactive approach in regard the Department
professional activity.
The Information Division

9. Additional Recommendations
• Increasing the Department’s staff with an additional three
researchers to ten researchers.
• Better prioritizing and filtering of requests.
• Appointing a Coordinator in the Finance Committee who will serve
as the point of contact with the Budget Control Department.
• Appoint a Chief Economist.
The Information Division

10. Framework for Implementation
Adopting recommendations requires improving
effectiveness and efficiency:
• Improve efficiency in Information & Knowledge Management
• Increase effectiveness by Proactive Budgetary Control
• Strengthen collaboration with counterparts
The Information Division

11. Knowledge Managment
• Increase diversity of professional economic background and
experience of the researchers.
• Increase teamwork between economists and multidisciplinary
researchers from other Research and Information sections.
• Develop and maintain expertise in different research fields.
The Information Division

12. Knowledge Managment
• Identify common issues across ministries.
• Appoint researchers in accordance with clusters of ministries.
• Develop methods for managing the accumulated knowledge in
the Department.
The Information Division

13. Proactive Budgetary Control
• Ongoing monitoring of government decisions and broad
government plans, and their respective budgetary implications.
• Analyzing long-term implications of the Government policy.
The Information Division

14. Proactive Budgetary Control
• Initiate and conduct budgetary analysis on various subjects such
as: allocation of budgetary reserves, budgetary surpluses, long-
term budgetary commitments.
Information Management
1. Access to the Finance Ministry’s information system.
2. Develop one of our own information system to monitor long-term process.
The Information Division

15. To Sum Up
During the implementation process, we performed a gap analysis to
examine the recommendations against the many constraints in the field. We
assume that a viable annual work plan would help in taking a proactive
approach—and even an approach based on the management of information
and knowledge—to minimizing these gaps. If such an approach is adopted,
we believe it is possible to implement most of the report’s
recommendations.
The Information Division

16. Thank you
The Information Division