Background
The financial strategy of any organization is surely one of the most important indicators of its activities. The transparency of the financial planning process helps to gain public understanding and rally support for the City s efforts. The current practice in Silistra Municipality does not allow the public access to detailed information about the revenue and the expenditure side of the local budget. The annual report and the cash implementation reports are announced by the mass media before they are approved by the Local Council, but the way this is done without any graphic material and with no attempt to digest the information for general public use does not add up to a clear meaningful message. On the other hand, the public has often demanded readier information access to the mechanics behind local spending. In addition, one of the requirements of the Secondary Education Financial Management Project (currently under way), which involves all local schools, is for the regular publication of updated information about the delegated school budgets and, indeed, the overall City budget.

Practice
A municipal staff team is currently involved in the development of an information program to raise local public awareness of the existing legal framework and the structure and implementation of the local budget. The team consists of:
Chief Financial Officer, who is responsible for financial reporting
Public Relations Expert, working on presentation and distribution strategies, and media coverage
IT Expert who will take care of the layout and technical implementation of the publicity materials
The program s long view is to establish the practice of providing current public information about the City s financial affairs in the form of regular bulletins and other information materials.
The first of a whole series of publications has been a brochure informing the local public about the 1998 Local Budget Report. It gives answers to the main questions in the minds of local residents: Where does the money come from, and most importantly, where does it go, and who makes those decisions?
Other information materials in the pipeline will focus on the budget process for the next fiscal year and on the relevant legal provisions and budgetary authorities.
Format & layout: The overall look and feel of the materials is meant to be as reader-friendly as possible, the emphasis being on tabular data and brief explanatory notes, and of course, pie-charts. The standard A4 size has been chosen as being the most convenient from a technical viewpoint. Special text boxes give clear concise explanations of budget highlights.
Target audience: City staff, Local Councilors, and the general public. The brochure is circulated free of charge through the existing outlets of a private distributor.

Results
Two days after it went into circulation, the brochure was out of stock! Besides, the local media got their cue and carried commentaries on the budget, full of praise for the City s publicity initiative. The City staff and the Councilors have already expressed their readiness to contribute to the implementation of a full information program.