A new initiative aims to monitor the way public money is spent.
The “Lipa” association of taxpayers has launched a crowdfunding campaign to implement a new project called “The Black Book of Public Spending”. The project aims to record and document cases of non-transparent and inefficient spending of taxpayers' money, reports Večernji List on December 9, 2017.
The fundraising campaign started on 7 December and will last until 28 December 2017. The start of the project implementation itself is expected in the first quarter of 2018. After one year, the collected and processed data will be published in the form of a “Black Book”, which will be given to each donor.
Each kuna donated to this project will be spent on developing the website with a database and for services of an expert team that will investigate the non-transparent spending of public funds and check all the cases reported by the citizens of Croatia.
Citizens can donate funds through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform or by sending a money transfer to the association’s bank account.
This joint project of citizens and the Lipa association will include a list and description of cases in which public money was spent in a non-transparent, unnecessary and/or illegal manner, like the famous examples of repeated repainting of a same tunnel, the purchase of new expensive limousines for state agencies too numerous to list, the procurement of motorway wind protection structures which serve no purpose, or the construction of access roads leading to childhood villages of Croatian politicians.
The Black Book project will include the development of a website and a database and will provide to the government where the money could be saved, without impairing the quality of public services provision. The association wants to investigate the cases of irresponsible spending of public funds in cooperation and with the help of Croatian citizens. It invites them to donate funds and send information on examples of wasteful expenditure of public funds which they see around them. After the Black Book project is officially launched, it will create public pressure to prevent such cases from happening again.
Translated from Večernji List.
