Deadly Sins in Public Budgeting of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 ph.d

2 Professor of Public Adminitration Group, University of Tehran

3 faculty of management, university of Tehran

4 Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Budgeting is a pervasive activity in the governmental system across the world; in a way that “The Budget” as a product of allocation process goes beyond the political rhetoric, representing the real priorities and preferences of each government in the social realm. However, budgeting as a part of political system has a set of recurring issues and problems that reduce the effectiveness of budgeting system in achieving the considered goals; in this study we called those problems, “deadly sins”. To identify these deadly sins in budgeting, the qualitative method of theme analysis has been used and data collection was done through interviews. According to the finding of the study, ten deadly sins in Iran budgeting process are: “Disconnection of budget relations with upstream documents”, “Distortion strategies of the facts”, “Rule of organizational life”, “Lack of theoretical basis”, “Extreme idealism and lack of pragmatism”, “Abundance of budgetary and non-budgetary orders”, “Multiplicity of sundry rows”, “violation of budget principals”, “lack of process transparency” and “lack of accountability”. Obviously, by improving each of these factors, the budget can be set in the right direction and the national goals and objectives mentioned in the upstream documents, in particular the vision document and development plans, can be achieved easier.

Keywords

Main Subjects


References
Alesina, A. & Perotti, R. (1996). Fiscal Discipline and the Budget Process. The American Economic Review, 86(2), 401-407.
Alvani, S. M., & Pourezzat, A.A. (2002). Designing intelligent legislative system for the realization of social justice. Quarterly of management massage, (1), 43-58. (in Persian)
Babaei, H. (1999). Public budgeting in Iran: from theory to politics. Tehran, The Commerce Printing & Publishing Company. (in Persian)
Blondal, J. R. (2003). Budget reform in OECD member countries: common trends. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 2(4), 7-25.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners. Sage Publish. ISBN: 9781847875815.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2014). Thematic analysis. In Alex C. Michalos (Ed.), 2014, Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. New York and London: Springer, pp. 6626-6628.
Braun, V., Clarke, V., & Terry, G. (2015a). Thematic analysis. In Poul Rohleder, Antonia C. Lyons (Eds.), 2015, Qualitative Research in Clinical and Health Psychology, New York: Palgrave Macmilln, pp. 95-113.
Braun, V., Clarke, V., & Rance, N. (2015b). How to use hematic analysis with interview data. Andreas Vossler and Naomi Moller (Eds.), 2015, the Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Handbook, Los Angeles: Sage, pp. 183-197.
Caiden, N. (1980). Budgeting in Poor Countries: Ten Common Assumptions Re-Examined. Public Administration Review, 40(1), 40-46.
Campos, Ed, and Sanjay Pradhan (1996). Budgetary institutions and expenditure outcomes: binding governments to fiscal performance. The World Bank. Policy research working paper 1646.
California Department of Finance (CDOF) (1998). Development of modern budgeting. Available at: http://www.dof.ca.gov/fisa/bag/history.htm.Access 20 September 2015, 21: 03.
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2013). Teaching thematic analysis: Overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. The Psychologist, 26(2), 120-123.
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2014). Thematic Analysis. In Thomas Teo (Ed.), 2014, Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, New York: Springer, pp. 1947-1952.
Cruzes, D. S., & Dyba, T. (2011). Recommended Steps for Thematic Synthesis in Software Engineering. 2011 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 22-23 Sept. 2011.
Dehkordi, M. M. (2002). Criteria for Judgment. In Abbas Mokhber (ed.), 2002, Budgeting in Iran: Issues and Challenges. Tehran: Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran, pp. 257-271. (in Persian)
Drucker, P. F. (1980). The Deadly Sins in Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 40(2), 103-106.
Ebrahiminezhad, M., & Farajvand, E. (2007). Budget from preparation to control. Eighth edition. Tehran: Samt. (in Persian)
Economic Research Department of
Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran (2016). Reviewing the budget Bill of 1396 of the country: the status of sundry rows. Tehran: Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran. Number of reports: 23015320. (in Persian)
Fayyazi, M. T. (2016). Lack of an influencial/effective budget. 3 December 2016. Available at: http://www.tejaratefarda.com. Access: 26 October 2017. 22: 40. (in Persian)
Ghasemi, M., Panahi, A., Khezari, M., & Mokber, A. (2008). Budgeting in Iran: Budget and Players (surveys). Tehran: Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran. (in Persian)
Graham E. F. (1991). The Center of the Univers": The Geopolitics of Iran. Translated by Abbas Mokber, 2015. Tehran: Markaz publishing company.
(in Persian)
Guest, G., MacQueen, K.M., & Namey, E.E. (2012). Applied Thematic Analysis. Los Angeles: Sage.
Howitt, D., & Cramer, D. (2008). Introduction to research methods in psychology. (2 ed). Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Howitt, D., & Cramer, D. (2011). Introduction to research methods in psychology. Third edition. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Jaam-e-Jam News Paper (2016). Reading of the 2011 Budget audit Report in Parliament. 19 January 2016. Available at: http://press.jamejamonline.ir. Access 13/07/1396. 23: 50. October 5, 2017. (in Persian)
Jamalzadeh, M.A. (1957/1983). Shaygan's Treasure. Tehran: Tehran books.
(in Persian)
Kettl, D. F. (2015). Politics of the Administrative Process. (6 ed). CQ press.
Khezri, M. (2008). The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking in Iran Government Budgeting. Iranian political science association, 3(4), 39-72. (in Persian)
Khezri, M., & Ghasemi, M. (2007). Issues and problems of budgeting in Iran. Tehran: Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran. (in Persian)
Kurdbacheh, M. (2013). Our budgeting systems is based on bargaining. 24 November 2013. Available at: https://www.isna.ir/news/92090301697/. Access 24 June 2017. 22: 56. (in Persian)
Lee, R. D., Johnson, R.W., & Joyce, P.G. (2013). Public budgeting systems. (9th ed). USA: Jones & Bartlett Learnng.
Lewin, K. (1945). The Research Center for Group Dynamics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sociometry, 8(2), 126-136.
Lienert, I. (2013). The legal framework for public finances and budget systems. In Richard Allen, Richard Hemming and Barry H. Potter (Eds.), 2013, the international handbook of public financial management, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 63-83.
Lienert, I., & Fainboim, I. (2010). Reforming Budget System Laws. Technical Notes and Manuals. Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund.
Ma, J. (2009). If you can’t budget, how can you govern? A study of China's state capacity. Public Administration & development, 29, 9-20.
Meltsner, A. J. (1986). The Seven Deadly Sins of Policy Analysis. Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 7(4), 367-381.
Mitchell, D., & Thurmaier, K. (2010). Currents and Undercurrents in Budgeting TheoryExploring the SwirlsHeading upstream. Foundations of Public Administration: Budgeting Theory. ABFM annual conference, Omaha, NE, October 6-9, 2010, ASPA. 1-34.
Mitchell, D., & Thurmaier, K. (2012). Currents and Undercurrents in Budgeting TheoryExploring the SwirlsHeading upstream. Public Administration Review, pp. 1-31.
Momeni, F. (2005). The Political Economy of Budgeting in Iran. Journal of Economics and Society, (6), 182-199. (in Persian)
Namey, E., Guest, G., Thairy, L., & Johnson, L. (2008). Data reduction techniques for large qualitative data sets. In Greg Guest, Kathleen M. MacQueen (Eds.), 2008, Handbook for Team-based Qualitative Research. Lanham and New York: Altamir Press, pp. 137-161.
Noor-Mohammadi, K. (2015). Fifth Development Plan failed: Recommendations for the success of the Sixth Development Plan. 17 January 2015. Available at: http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/467327. Access: 29 September 2017. 17: 50. (in Persian)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2004). The legal framework for budget systems: an international comparison. OECD journal on budgeting, 4(3).
Poterba, J. M., & Hagen, J.V. (1999). Introduction. In James M. Poterba and Jurgen von Hagen (Eds.), 1999, fiscal institutions and fiscal performance, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 1-12.
Rakner, L., Mukubvu, L., Ngwira, N., & Smiddy, K. (2004). The budget as theatre- the formal and informal institutional makings of the budget process in Malawi. Bergen: Christen Michelsen Institute.
Roulston, K. (2001). Data analysis and theorizing as ideology. Qualitative research, 1(3), 279-302.
Sasan, S. A. (2016). Budgetary Challenges in Iran. 6 December 2016. Available at: http://www.ifnaa.ir/fa/news/36671/. Access: 18 October 2017. 16: 40.
(in Persian)
Shobeyrinezhad, A.A. (2002). Budgeting in Iran: issues and challenges. Tehran: Islamic Parliament Research Center of the Iran. (in Persian)
Shafritz, J. M., Russell, E.W., & Borick, C.P. (2009). Introduction public administration. (Sixth edition). New York: Pearson education, Inc.
Tabnak (2016). 71% of budget sentences 94 were not enforced. 9 March 2016. Available at: http://www.entekhab.ir/fa/news/257286. Access: 1 October 2017. 00: 23. (in Persian)
Tejarat-e-farda (2013). The sundry rows. 15 April 2013. Available at: http://www.tejaratefarda.com. Access: 3 October 2013. 21: 53. (in Persian)
Tyer, C., & Willand, J. (1997). Public budgeting in America: A twentieth century retrospective. Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, 9(2), 189-219.
Wildavsky, A. (2002). Budgeting: a comparative theory of budgetary process. (2ed). New Jersey and Oxford: Transaction publishers.
Wildavsky, A., & Caiden, N. (2004). The new Politics of the budgetary process, fifth edition. New York: Addison- Wesley.
World Bank (1989). Financial systems and development, world development indicators. World development report 1989. New York and Oxford: Oxford university press.
World Bank (1998). Public expenditure management handbook. Washington, D.C: the World Bank.