Financial Condition Assessment of a Territorial Community in the System of Local Budgets Risk-Based Control

Abstract

The article develops a methodological toolkit for assessing the financial condition of a territorial community as an information basis for implementing risk-based control of local budgets. The relevance of the study stems from the reactive nature of the current financial control system in Ukraine, which does not enable preventive identification of budget risks, as well as from the insufficient integration of accounting support into control procedures at the level of territorial communities. The aggravation of the problem under martial law, when local budgets are subjected to increased burdens while the revenue base narrows, makes the transition to a preventive control model an objective necessity. The purpose of the article is to develop a system of indicators of the financial capacity of a community, built exclusively on verified accounting data. In the research process, a systematic approach, coefficient analysis methods, indicator normalization, and the arithmetic mean were used. A list of key indicators has been developed, including per capita income indicators, share of own income, share of development expenditures, budget execution ratio, self-financing ratio, and integral index of financial capacity. For each indicator, a source in accounting reporting forms, a control function, and threshold values of risk signals have been determined. It has been proven that the proposed system covers all three types of risk-based control: preventive, current, and subsequent. The integral index of financial capacity enables a comprehensive assessment of a community’s budgetary condition and its ranking relative to other communities. The practical value of the study lies in the use of the developed toolkit for both internal monitoring of a community’s financial condition and for state audit and inter-territorial comparisons. Recommendations have been formulated for local governments on implementing the developed methodology in their financial management practices.