Controlling and continuous budget control at the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority

Abstract

One of the primary objectives of the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority's (HFSA) strategy, which was approved in 2005 under the title Efficient supervision – 2005–2010, is the efficient utilisation of resources. For the achievement of this objective the HFSA has restructured its internal financial management, and introduced new controlling methods that were not previously used in the supervisory work. For the HFSA, the efficient utilisation of resources means the full implementation of riskbased, integrated and process oriented, problem preventing supervision, and tailoring supervision to the supervisory rules and actual operation of financial management. We wish to adjust the limited supervisory resources (personal, material, etc. resources) to the actual risks. Therefore, resources used for the supervision of activities and organisations that do not pose significant risks to consumers must be reduced to the minimum, while resources used for organisations and processes that imply risks must be maximised. The strategy of the HFSA points out that rational resource management can be implemented successfully only if planning, measurement and accounting become clear and systemic in public administration, too. This requires the creation of the most important conditions of resource management, especially the functions ensuring the comparison of planning, implementation and efficiency, as well as the criteria of the measurement and evaluation of efficiency, i.e. controlling activity in the public institutions, too. During the development of the controlling system, the following primary objectives were set: •supporting the internal decisions of the budget owners and managers, feedback on operational performance and control, •increased “real time” monitoring/reporting, •the required information is determined by the managers in line with the strategic and operational needs of the organisation.