Budget process digitalization at the municipal level: Problems and prospects of development

In recent decades, digitalization has firmly entered the sphere of state and municipal administration, including the budget system of the Russian Federation. Currently, the concept of electronic budgeting is actively developing and being implemented both at the federal and regional levels, which is confirmed by extensive scientific research. However, the issue concerning the use of digital technologies in the budget process remains insufficiently studied. The aim of our work is to identify the problems and prospects of digitalization of the budget process at the municipal level to find effective ways to overcome emerging technical, personnel, organizational and institutional difficulties. For this purpose, we conducted in-depth interviews with 45 experts in the field of budget system development, namely government and municipal employees from various Russian regions, and specialists from federal financial authorities. The paper outlines the specifics of the digitalization of the budget process of municipalities, the problems that arise are classified into groups: technical, personnel, organizational, institutional, and the compliance of this issue with international practice is noted. The article reveals that the updating of technologies and the legislative framework does not occur synchronously, which reduces the effectiveness of implementing digital solutions in the budget process. The role of the internal public finance management system is defined, the features of using various software solutions and the problems of their integration with the state integrated information system are presented. The conducted research allowed formulating proposals for improving the digitalization of the budget process, make recommendations on the integration of various information systems, create a single training resource and improve methods of technical and organizational support in the field.