State Assignment Financing in the Context of Electronic Budget: New Challenges and Old Problems

The article examines the issues related to formation and financing of a state assignment in the context of electronic budget and new requirements for justification of standard costs. The author aims to analyze the experience of application of state assignment and standard costs in a new environment, to identify and structure the associated methodological and practical problems, and to justify the proposed solutions. The analysis reveals how substantial is the problem of non-compliance with provision of the regulatory legal framework for the formation of state assignment and standard costs by federal departments. Based on the analysis of new requirements for calculation of standard costs, the author concludes that implementation requires a complex, analytical and methodological work. The article shows that a significant number of departments are not ready for such work in terms of the lack of necessary information about expenditures of their subordinated bodies as well as lack of modern tools for costs accounting. The article also provides the example of successful experience of standard costs formation and specifies the necessary preconditions for that. The author analyzes the features of public services characteristics that influence formation of state assignment and standard costs calculation. In addition, the author proposes to balance requirements for the formation of standard costs with sectoral features and to moderate the existing requirements for standard costs calculation for a number of public services, taking into account objective restrictions. The author emphasizes the necessity to introduce modern tools for costs accounting in public entities.