Medium-term expenditure system and evaluation of Turkey application

Medium-term expenditure system, which forms the basis of policies applied by the governments in using public sources effectively, economically and efficiently is the most crucial institutional arrangement revealed by public expenditure management approach. This arrangement, also known as multi-year budgeting in literature, is not an alternative to yearly budgets but a complementary on the contrary. The core of medium term expenditure system, which is an application of multi-year expenditure planning, is a source estimating method affecting new programmes and political changes to be applied and arranging forthcoming budgeting necessities with available sources. In addition, the system provides an opportunity for financial control and comparison with fiscal magnitudes during the application of budgets. Application of the system mostly depends on acquiring fiscal discipline, allocating of source which can provide social welfare in harmony with the priorities of the government and finally an effective and productive realization of public services.In this thesis, the applications of various countries (United States of America, Sweden Germany, Australia, Malawi) which have acquired a lot of success in their budgets by changing to the system of medium-term expenditure in different times take place.As for the main purpose of thesis, which is the applicability of medium-term expenditure system in Turkey, it is revealed that the transfer of the allowance bidding limits of general and special budgeted institutions that are within the scope of central administration budget which is started to be applied after 2006, and with a comparison, how much the OVMP estimates differed from budget initial allowances and realizations in the period until 2008. Secondly, the results have been evaluated via a questionnaire oriented towards the instructors of Department of Public Finance who provide theoretical infrastructure to the system in various ways and civil servants working in the related units of the Ministry of Finance and the State Planning Organization realizing the preparation and application of medium-term financial plan and programme. The findings obtained show that the estimates for the budget expenditure items of general and special budgeted institutions in the period under consideration have significantly differed from the realizations, the allowance bidding limits could not acquire stability, and the deviations increase with the length of period. The fundamental results of the survey are that the transition into medium-term expenditure system in Turkey is convenient and it has been supported on a large scale but there still are some formal and informal problems in the achievement of the realisation and application of some necessities.