Members of parliament on Wednesday welcomed increased public spending transparency brought by the new budget bill, which for the first time prescribes penalties for "naughty" mayors and county prefects.

The bill introduces for the first time penalties for mayors, municipality heads, and county prefects who break the law, and they personally will be fined 10 to 50 thousand kuna if they do not present all expenses transparently,” said Dario Hrebak of the ruling coalition’s Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), saying this was a huge step forward in controlling public expenditure.

Publicly reporting all costs, said Hrebak, will force local leaders to open up public finances and help remove the stigma from officials who do their jobs responsibly and honestly.

Hrebak also announced HSLS’s amendment under which everyone who uses public money would have to state in detail what they paid for, when and how much, recalling that budget transparency was HSLS’s condition for signing a coalition agreement with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

The state secretary at the Finance Ministry, Stipe Zupan, said that the aim was to improve budget planning and reporting on expenditures at the level of the state as well as at the level of counties, municipalities and cities.

The most important changes refer to budget planning and adoption, control over budget execution, borrowing by local government units and the establishment of a more efficient system for financial and statistical reports.

The opposition welcomed the increased budget transparency, noting that certain provisions had to be defined more precisely.