The Ministry of Finance has argued detailing such expenses as previously done was not the right move, though coalition MP and Riigikogu finance committee member Aivar Sõerd (Reform) has warned this change reduces transparency.

Appendix 3 of next year's state budget is headed "Planned grants to legal entities by administrative areas and programs," and a similar section was included in previous years' budgets.

However, although this appendix previously itemized specific NGOs (MTÜ in Estonian) and foundations (SA), along with the sums allocated to them from the state budget for their operational and investment expenses, the level of detail in the 2025 state budget has been significantly curtailed.

In some cases, exact allocations for institutions do remain. For example, NGO Eesti Kodukaunistamise Ühendus, an organization which oversees the most beautiful homes of the year award, will be getting €15,000 for its operational expenses in 2025. In many cases, though, the actual beneficiary and planned utility of funds remain unclear.

For example, the table reveals that €101,000 is earmarked for activities supporting adult education, with a note that this is based on a "ministerial directive."

As for the €445,000 allocated towards the operational expenses of musical ensembles and concert organizers, the appendix shows that the money was allocated under a regulation issued by the Ministry of Culture, specifically regulation number 3 issued on November 12, 2018 concerning "conditions and procedure for supporting musical ensembles and concert organizers."

There are dozens of similar explanations of fund allocations in the table, meaning that if an interested party wanted to fully understand the grants set out in the budget, an individual search for the ministerial regulations, directives, contracts, and other such documents accompanying each amount would be needed, to gain a sense of the actual allocations.

This is not a realistic goal, bearing in mind there are hundreds of grant recipients, while many contracts lack specified dates.

ERR asked the Ministry of Finance whether they have any table which does itemize specific grants and their recipients.

Regina Vällik, head of the ministry's state budget division financial department, told ERR that they do not have information detailed to such an extent that recipient institutions are listed alongside the grants they relate to.

Vällik said: "The requirement for distributing the grants is the state budget passed by the Riigikogu, which is still in process," though added that such an appendix will not be created even after the budget is passed.

"The reason is that this appendix previously reflected the administrative areas' plans, which covered only a small portion of total grants, but reality differed significantly from what was shown in the appendix," Vällik added.

The official added that grants deriving from the state budget are allocated based on legislation, application rounds, or competitive tender, while in many cases, the recipients or grant amounts are not clearly defined.

This means, she said, it would be misleading to display them in the explanatory memorandum of the state budget bill; when this has been done in the past, it was similarly misleading, Vällik went on.

"Grants are specified for target groups or purposes In the 2025 state budget appendix, while additional info is provided regarding the basis for issuing the grant. This allows the Riigikogu to get a picture of how the grants will be used," Vällik outlined.

Reform MP: Change in practice reduces transparency

Aivar Sõerd (Reform), who sits on the Riigikogu Finance Committee and is a former minister of finance, said that an overview table of grant recipients has always been part of the budget.

This is indeed a change, but not one which works in favor of transparency, he added.

Sõerd said: "This is a little bit odd. If the aim is supposedly transparency in the budget, as stressed in the coalition agreement, then why have these lines been cut out I do not know."

The MP pointed out that the state budget appendix in question should give information on how much money is allocated from ministries to various foundations by way of operational support.

"When now even this information has been changed in a way that curbs transparency, it is certainly not in line with the direction as outlined in the coalition agreement. This is a step in the opposite direction," Sõerd went on.

"Some changes have been made, but not in the direction of transparency; instead, the amount of information has been reduced."

Sõerd stressed that important information should be included in the budget document, not least since the explanatory memorandum runs to 700 pages as it is, yet a large proportion of it is superfluous material, including an excessive amount of irrelevant metrics, which, in reality, are not used in managing the state's finances, he said.

"The whole program-based structure, the descriptions of the programs – this is information which no one really uses, but there is a massive amount of it, yet important information is lacking. That is how it is, because a program-based budget is built entirely differently from an ordinary, actual budget. And the public, as well as the Riigikogu and the ministries themselves, rely on a normal budget," Sõerd noted.

Authoring an explanatory memorandum for the budget in the way that has been done involves significant work, as do the IT systems and formulas needed for program- and results-based structuring.

"This is quite a large amount of resources, which are spent on these program-based minutiae, and yet no one uses them. Not in the Riigikogu; not outside the government sector," Sõerd opined.

Estonia began using a program-based state budget, more commonly called an activity-based budget, in 2016, though the practice has been widely criticized by many institutions, including the Chancellor of Justice and the National Audit Office (Riigikontroll).

It is harder to understand than a cost-based budget, and harder to compare across expense categories and years, critics say.

The Reform Party, SDE and Eesti 200 coalition agreement signed this summer, states: "The state budget has to be comprehensible and transparent. Starting with the 2025 state budget's explanatory memorandum we will be publishing a cost-based budget in tandem with the activity-based budget. Subsequently, we will decide on the need to continue with the activity-based budget, and any changes to the budget preparation process."

The 2025 state budget bill's first reading is scheduled for Wednesday, October 16 at the Riigikogu's main chamber, after which amendments can be proposed until October 30, ahead of its second reading. Changes made between the second and final reading can only be cosmetic, for instance fixing typos, with a view to passing the bill by year-end – which for the Riigikogu means mid-December.

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