Principal and institutional analysis of the central government budget process in Turkey

Since the budget is a financial and political document, it is important to abide by the budgetary principles that determine the legal and basic framework in order to carry out a sound budgeting process. In this context, besides the well-defined budget principles, they sould be implemented with concrete practices and embraced by the legislature, executive and bureaucracy. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the central government budgeting process in Turkey within the scope of budgetary principles. In addition, Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Ministry of Treasure and Finance, Presidency of Strategy and Budget, Turkish Court of Accounts, which are important actors of the budgeting process, are evaluated from an institutional point of view. In the study, in which the qualitative analysis method was used, it has been concluded that the budget principles are stretched with many practices, and the legal and institutional structure support this situation. In other words, it has been determined that there are problems of principle rather than the problem of the budgeting system in Turkey. Besides, it has been observed that the legislature do not take concrete remediel measures and take advantage of existing practices.