Purpose – The paper aims to offer a viewpoint on how governmental budgeting needs to be reconsidered after
the COVID-19 outbreak.
Design/methodology/approach – Building on extant research, and drawing on the Italian context, the
paper provides reflections on four interrelated aspects: (1) how budgeting and reporting processes and
formats are being modified; (2) how budgeting may enhance governments’ financial resilience; (3) how
citizens are involved in the budgeting cycles and (4) how emergency responses may produce opportunities
for corruption.
Findings – To tackle COVID-19 related challenges, budgeting, rebudgeting, reporting processes and formats
need to be reconsidered and supported by the development of new competencies. Governments will need to put
stronger emphasis on the anticipatory and coping roles of budgeting to reduce public organizations’ exposure
to shocks and support governmental resilience. The involvement of citizens has proven critical to face the
pandemic and will become increasingly relevant due to the financial impacts of COVID-19 on future public
service provision. Greater attention to the risks of increased corruption is also needed.
Originality/value – Drawing lessons from one of the countries most hit by COVID-19, the paper offers a
viewpoint on a timely topic of international relevance by looking in an integrated way at interrelated topics
such as budgeting, rebudgeting, reporting, financial resilience, coproduction and corruption.