Role and Functions

Parliamentary Budget Office(PBO) is an independent fiscal institution within the system of the Parliament of Georgia, with the main goal to strengthen parliamentary oversight over the public finance management by providing independent and impartial analysis, research and assessment of government's fiscal policies, plans and performance, and consequently, promoting fiscal sustainability for medium/long-term period.

The Parliamentary Budget Office of Georgia has a long history of existence. It was originally established in 1997, though has been accountable to the Committee for Budget and Finance of the Parliament of Georgia since 2005. The year 2014 was distinguished with significant changes and challenges for the Budget Office. Significant steps were undertaken towards improvement of the legislative environment underpinning the work of the PBO, and bringing it in compliance with the international better practice. Namely, the referred changes brought the regulatory environment of the PBO close to the OECD Principles for Independent Fiscal Institutions: The Budget Office got established as an independent structural unit, guarantees for independence of its work have been defined and the organizational structure has been changed to comply with internationally accepted practices. After the existing amendments, the Parliamentary Budget Office is accountable only to the supervisory board, headed by the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia and includes representatives of all factions within the Parliament, which guarantees the independence and objectivity of its activities.

 After the reform, in a capacity of the independent fiscal institution with the existing fiscal framework, the Parliamentary Budget Office: 

• Produces thorough analysis at the budget planning stage and regularly reviews budget execution process, as well as the amendments to the budget law;
• Assesses compliance of government’s fiscal policy with existing fiscal rules and mid-term fiscal sustainability,
• Produces independent medium-term fiscal forecasts (within the framework of its macroeconomic forecasting policy; at this stage government’s expenditure policy is treated as an exogenous variable);
• Produces additional research publications on specific aspects of fiscal policy and framework, defined upon the pre-defined and publicly available criteria;
• Regularly reviews the main trends of the macroeconomic policy;
• Evaluates the official macroeconomic forecasts for budgetary planning, as well as preparation of independent macroeconomic forecasts for the short and medium term;
• Produces additional research publications on specific aspects of fiscal policy and framework, defined upon the pre-defined and publicly available criteria;
• Examines cost estimates of the legislative bills provided within the explanatory notes of the draft laws in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Georgia and expresses corresponding opinions in accordance with the pre-defined and publicly available criteria;
• Produces cost estimates for the legislative bills throughout the law drafting process based on the requests of the Members of Parliament; as agreed with the author of the request, taking into account its resource availability and within discretionary powers.
• Promotes the use of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the policies initiated within the Parliament, taking into account its resource availability and the needs of the MPs as the main stakeholders.

Please see The Statute of the Parliamentary Budget Office of Georgia for the details about the regulatory framework underpinning our work.  

For further information about the international practice on the functions of the independent fiscal Institutions and relevant international regulatory framework, please see. International Regulatory Framework.