THE ESO REFORM IN SLOVAKIA – AN (UN)SUCCESSFUL PATH TOWARDS THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURES OF LOCAL STATE ADMINISTRATION?

Abstract

The primary purpose of this article is to evaluate the economic predictions of the ESO reform in Slovakia based on public expenditure analysis. We focus on the identification of the current expenses of district offices as bodies of local state administration in the period from 2011 to 2022, and evaluate whether, in the long term, the ESO reform has fulfilled one of its primary objectives of reducing public expenditures. The article is intended to open and expand the neglected scientific discussion surrounding public spending and the efficiency of district offices as bodies of local state administration in Slovakia. The study points to the fact that the ESO reform did not bring about the fundamental optimization of public expenditures. On the contrary, the results of the article point to the continuously increasing year-on-year expenditures of district offices – from the most significant percentage increase in 2014, when the reform began to be fully implemented (+128.4%), to the smallest increase (+1.54%) in 2016. The reduction of current expenses for district offices occurred only in the transitional years of 2013 (–3.68%) and 2022 (–48.30%).