A basic function of any government involves collecting and disbursing public funds and maintaining registers of such expenditures. Reporting systems on budget execution vary widely in terms of organization, transparency, accuracy and degree of detail. For researchers, the ability to easily access and analyse data on public spending is essential in order to provide exhaustive and timely advice to relevant staff and stakeholders. For government officials, rapid access to budgeting data in an easy-to-use format is essential in order to establish a better decision-making process and increase analytical capacity among ministries.
The aim of the BOOST project (initiated by the World Bank in early 2010) is to increase the transparency and efficiency of public spending across the world by improving access to government expenditure data and linking expenditure to relevant outcomes. In May 2011, the BOOST team collected and processed detailed data on public spending in over twelve countries in three regions, creating easy-to-use databases that were used by World Bank researchers for various projects.
In the Republic of Moldova, the BOOST government expenditure database was built at the request of the Ministry of Finance based on the treasury data provided by the Center of Information Technology in Finance to the World Bank. There is a Manual describing the resulting database and provides guidance on how to use it. You can contact the BOOST team for assistance with issues not covered in the Manual.