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Today, February 28th, 2013, Independent Think Tank EXPERT-GRUP and its partners, RT Design Studio, launched BudgetStories.md. This website is a result of “Building a Citizen’s Budget Understanding” project, which aims to build on the experience of Moldova as the first country in the world to release detailed and disaggregated data on public expenditures by analyzing the budget data and display the results in a simple and intelligible format. 

The first budget story launched today is an analysis of the Parliament expenditures. The website also uses OpenSpending’s visualization tool to display the main expenditure categories of the state budget planned for 2013. Future budget stories will analyze the use of public money in sectors such as: public administration, agriculture, education and health. The team is also planning for interactive modules on the website for the near future (such as a real time budget calendar and a tax calculator).

Website users will have access to infographics, budget data visualizations and analyses on the expenditure of public money. The website wishes to communicate about the public expenditures and their efficiency by meaningful visualizations and budget stories that can trigger further discussions. 

The project also plans to expand the network of stakeholders who could use the open data and disseminate information about how the Government of Moldova spends the public money.

The team’s expectations are that this project will create a better understanding by citizens, especially the active members of the society on the operation of the public finance system and the way it influences their everyday lives. To increase this understanding will ultimately contribute to an involvement of society in the budget process and will promote more efficient spending of the public money. 

BudgetStories.md contact information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or +373 22 929 994.

More information on Budget Stories can be seen on Facebook (please insert link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Budget-Stories/572468439448024?sid=0.5174039560370147 [7]) and on Twitter (please insert link: https://twitter.com/BudgetStories [8])

Project implemented by Independent Think Tank EXPERT-GRUP and their partner company RT Design Studio, (please insert link: http://expert-grup.org/en/ [9]) with the financial support of Soros Foundation Moldova, Good Governance (please insert link: http://soros.md/ [10]) and Open Society Foundations (please insert link: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/ [11])