Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Israel Ukraine Forum of Science and Innovation‖ (April 27-29, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Tel Aviv, Israel, 2026. - 262 p.

16 Meanwhile, we proceed from the obvious inconsistency of the categories of public "funds" and "finances." Since, in our opinion, the term "public finances" is broader than "public funds." The research conducted demonstrates a significant number of diverse, scientific developments, constituent elements, and different approaches to defining the structure and concept of "public finances". A significant number of scholars emphasize that the main criterion for distinguishing public finances, among other categories, is their affiliation with the performance of state functions and the related financing of the activities of government bodies throughout the hierarchy of public administration, from top to bottom. According to the results of the study, summarizing the work of scientists, we can offer the following definition: public finance is a set of social and economic relations related to the formation of a certain amount of finance, that is, income for the performance of the functions of state management of the public sector, their distribution (redistribution) at the central, regional and local levels, as well as the use by entities of financial activity, control over the expenditure of state funds, local self- government, state funds, funds of entities of state and municipal ownership, which are aimed at satisfying all types of public interest and general social needs [3, p.121]. The state is a determining component of the formation and development of public finances, with its functions, responsibility to society of government bodies at various levels for the proper functioning of the public sector of the economy, providing the population with necessary goods and services. The openness of state, regional, local institutions, public reporting of representatives of government bodies is the criterion that reflects the new ideology of financial management and indicates the emergence of public, not state, finances. In our opinion, in modern conditions, the process of formation of public finances is very slow. The reason for this is the high level of corruption, fraud, abuse, budget violations, duplication of functions of state bodies, disorderly relations in the public finance system. However, the challenges that the country faced in 2022 (due to the