TURKMENISTAN'S OVERALL BUDGET FIGURE IS PUBLICLY

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000413 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN; EEB/IFD/OMA JULIA JACOBY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PREL TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN'S OVERALL BUDGET FIGURE IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE, BUT WITH MAJOR OMISSIONS REF: STATE 28885 ¶1. (SBU) The following is Post's response to reftel that requests information about Turkmenistan's central government budget. ¶2. (SBU) Is the central government expected to receive or is it already receiving U.S. foreign assistance funded using FY 09 funds? Yes, the Turkmenistan Government will receive FMF and IMET assistance during FY 09. ¶3. (SBU) Is the host country's budget publicly available? Total amounts for both the overall state budget, which includes central and local government revenue and expenses), and the central (non-local) government were published in the newspaper. There is no detailed breakdown of the overall budget amounts available to the public. ¶4. (SBU) Are incomes and expenditures included in the publicly-available budget? The publicly-available budget figures do not include revenues and expenditures of self-supporting government sectors such as the oil and gas sector and the railways. There is no transparency regarding the government's overall revenues and expenditures. There is no basis to determine the accuracy of the published figures. Additionally, the largest contributor to government revenues, oil and gas revenues, is handled separately from the published budget figures. MILES