The budget constitutes the basic financial plan of the country's leadership. It is the monetary expression of the annual socioeconomic plan and provides for the financial flows implicit in that plan. The budget is comprehensive; it takes into account all aspects of the economic, social, and cultural activities of the country. In line with the government's policy of gradually placing economic trusts and their branches on a self-financing basis, a progressively larger share of the funds budgeted for the economy is being retained by the trusts rather than channeled to the budget. The sums thus retained by economic organization rose from about 3 billion leva in 1971 to a planned level of more than 5 billion leva in 1973. Ultimate control over the use of these funds, nevertheless, remains with the government, and their disposition is subject to the provisions of the budget. The national budget is formulated by the Ministry of Finance along lines dictated by the BKP leadership and must be approved by the National Assembly. As a rule only very minor modifications are made in the process of legislative review. Budgets for local governments are prepared as a part of the national budget; in 1972 and 1973 their total amount was equivalent to about 17 percent of the overall national budget. The Ministry of Finance is also responsible for ensuring the scrupulous implementation of the budget. It is assisted in this task by a nationwide network of state and local inspectors and by agents of the banks. Actual budgetary results are directly affected by deviations from the annual economic plan and therefore seldom, if ever, correspond to the original estimates, which have the force of law. Systematic publication of budgetary data was discontinued in the mid-1960s. Since then only scattered figures have become available through press reports on the presentation of the budget to the National Assembly and occasional articles by the minister of finance or other ministry officials.