Assessment of the social and economic development of a region: essence, methodology and correlation with transparency of local authorities

Abstract

The introduction of fiscal policy transparency practices in the contemporary local financial management system is one of the prerequisites for increasing the socio-economic development of regions. Creating a transparent budget environment contributes to a faster and more effective solution to the region’s current problems. The lack of a sufficient level of budgetary transparency is a consequence of poor public interest consideration, which impedes the people’s realization of their own democratic aspirations and freedoms. The article is aimed at developing scientific and methodological approach to assessing the state of social and economic development of a region and comparing the estimates with the regions’ transparency levels for 2016–2018. Integral assessment of socioeconomic development consists of four stages. It has been found out that the level of socio-economic development of regions does not correlate with the transparency level of regional policy. Public finance transparency assessment of Sumy city has shown that its population needs a higher level of information disclosure, use of the latest information channels, and creation of convenient forms of involvement in the budget process. The transparency evaluation results in the areas of budgeting, public procurement, disposal of property of the territorial community, etc. have been investigated. Besides, directions for improving Sumy local authorities’ information policy are proposed to increase its transparency.