an Eldis Resource
Open Budget Index 2008
How transparent are government budgets around the world?
Authors:
W. Krafchik
Publisher:
International Budget Partnership, 2008
The Open Budget Survey seeks to provide government officials, legislators, development practitioners, civil society organizations, journalists, and researchers with an independent, comparative measure of government budget transparency in 85 countries around the world. The Survey report also suggests reforms that countries might adopt to improve budget transparency, increase public participation, and strengthen institutions of accountability.
The survey findings include:
- Overall, the state of budget transparency around the world is deplorable
- In most of the countries surveyed the public does not have access to the comprehensive and timely information needed to participate meaningfully in the budget process and to hold government to account
- Many more governments could quickly improve budget transparency at low cost by making publicly available the budget information that they already produce for donors or internal use
- Progress could be made elsewhere quickly and at relatively low cost, if there were sufficient political will.
Recommendations include:
- Governments must disseminate budget information in forms and through methods and media that are understandable and useful to the wider population
- International financial institutions and donors should encourage aid-recipient governments to make publicly available the budget information they produce for their donors or internal purposes
- International financial institutions and donors should increase the transparency of aid flows and avoid off-budget funding
- International institutions and donors should increase technical assistance and funding for civil society, legislatures, and supreme audit institutions. as part of a comprehensive package of efforts to improve budget accountability and oversight
- Civil society should publicize and demand explanations for instances in which governments do not make publicly available the budget information they produce for their donors or internal purposes.
The author concludes by stating that the public’s right to budget information should be institutionalized through Freedom of Information laws to ensure timely and low-cost access to information for all people.
