Identification of the Negative Operational Balance Drivers of Government Budget

Considering the ever-increasing inflation of recent years, which came about due to international sanctions in the field of oil and gas condensate sales, and the existence of a large budget deficit, it is necessary for the government to think of ways to improve the negative operational balance of its budget and take effective measures as soon as possible. In order to improve the operational balance of the government budget, drivers of the negative operational balance of the budget should be identified first. The main goal of this research, which was conducted in 1401, is to identify the drivers of the negative operational balance of the government budget. In this qualitative-exploratory research, by conducting 19 interviews with experts (3 faculty members, 6 managers, and 10 experts of plan and budget organization) and analyzing the interviews with thematic analysis, finally the drivers of the negative operational balance of the government budget in the form of 3 categories of contextual, procedural and Programmatic drivers (3 main themes, 8 sub-themes and 83 codes) were identified. Contextual drivers refer to the factors related to the country's economic background and include the undeveloped manufacturing and export industries, monopolies in the country's economic sectors and excessive growth of the public sector in Iran. The programmatic drivers express the factors that are related to lack of planning or the lack of a suitable plan in the field of operational balance management and include the lack of a suitable plan to increase the government's efficiency and the lack of a suitable plan to control the sale of natural resources. Procedural drivers refer to the factors that are related to the processes, procedures and the quality of its implementation in the country and include the weakness in the tax system, Failure to perform performance-based budgeting principles and ineffective monitoring of the government's economic activities.