State Treasury

Sphere of authority and competences:

• The State Treasury (hereinafter referred to as the “Treasury”) is a state-budget funded organisation established pursuant to Act No. 291/2002 Coll. on the State Treasury and on the amendment to certain acts. It was established on 1 January 2003 with the appointment of the Director.
• The Treasury represents a new system in the comprehensive financial management of public finances and in the management of cash, debt and the investment of the public sector’s short-term liquidity surpluses. In particular, it shall ensure, inter alia, the centralisation of revenue and the implementation of public budgets, the management of the state budget’s receivables and payables, and the daily liquidity of the state budget. It does not interfere in the actual performance of general government and in the competences of its individual components.
• The Treasury will support fiscal policy objectives through financial planning, debt and liquidity management, which will contribute to keeping revenue and expenditure developments within the stated short- and medium-term fiscal policy objectives. This means improving the monitoring of the implementation of tasks of the fiscal policy defined in the medium-term financial outlook, the annual and multiannual borrowing plans, the annual and multiannual public budget deficit targets and the coordinated targets with the NBS, so as to avoid conflicts between monetary and fiscal policy.
• With the existing timing mismatch between tax, non-tax and customs revenues and public expenditure, the Treasury will seek to minimize the cost of maintaining the state’s liquidity by taking advantage of the most favourable financial market conditions for both borrowing and investment. It will also seek to achieve an optimal structure of government borrowing, maturity and cost, using the services of a specialised organisation - the Debt and Liquidity Management Agency.
• An important contribution of the Treasury will also be to support financial and capital market development through the Government’s borrowing strategy and the investment of short-term surplus cash.
• The establishment of the Treasury will also enable the central management of state assets and liabilities through the registration of the state’s physical assets and shareholdings in state-owned enterprises and state joint-stock companies. Organisations that administer different types of non-financial assets will work together to coordinate their financial policies with the Treasury.
• The existence of the Treasury will facilitate the process of preparing the state budget. The main means will be detailed information on the implementation of the previous year’s public budgets, plans for appropriations and the results of the application of expenditure control prior to implementation.
• The Treasury will ensure comprehensive and timely information on the budget implementation process. This will be made possible by an efficient information system enabling a deeper analysis of the expenditure of individual Treasury clients and providing information on all economic transactions carried out.
• Last but not least, the Treasury will ensure the recording of information and economic indicators for the general government. The basis for this activity will be accounting and reporting.

Functions of the Treasury

The Treasury will achieve the above objectives through its functions:

• revenue centralisation,
• expenditure management,
• accounting,
• payment transactions,
• financial planning,
• asset management,
• cash management,
• debt management,
• control

Establishment of the Treasury in support of Slovakia’s integration efforts into the EU

All countries in the European Union (hereinafter referred to as the “EU”) are bound by the Maastricht criteria on general government debt, given the possible negative consequences for the monetary union of one country becoming over-indebted. This also implies a requirement for an effective public finance management tool for countries applying for EU membership. The European Commission’s reports show that Slovakia will have to undertake, in particular, a substantial reform of the management control system for pre-accession and structural funds in the area of public finances. Another important task will be to align reporting and statistical data with EU reporting. In the SR, these functions will be provided by the Treasury.

With the creation of the Treasury, the Slovak Republic will join the European countries where treasuries have been operating successfully for many years. Among the countries with several years of positive experience with the treasury are Spain, France, Sweden, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Ireland and, among the associated countries, in particular Hungary and Slovenia.