Open Budget Index and the need of transparency in government spending

Last week the International Budget Partnership (IBP) released its 2008 version of the Open Budget Index (OBI), which analyzes budget transparency in 85 countries all around the world.   Among its main findings, the OBI shows that the level of transparency in the budgetary process is deporable in most of the evaluated countries -only 5 percent of them provide adequate information on spending to the public, while almost 30 percent of them provide very few or any information at all.

Although a group of countries are moving forward on this matter, the current state of budget transparency opens the door to waste and misappropriation of public funds in most places.   This situation is and will always be delicate, but in this time of expansionary and stimulus policies, an appropriate disclosure of the use of resources becomes very sensitive. 

Among IBP's recommendations we found that many countries can improve their budget transparency very easily and in a cost-effective way, given that the information is already there, just waiting to be disclosed.  Moreover, the capacity of legislatures and supreme audit institutions to monitor and oversight the executive power are explicitly mentioned as key elements to enhance transparency.

Besides these provisions, transparency and access to information laws at all levels of government will also encourage transparency and accountability in the budget process -and other activities performed by governments.  At the local level, innovative approaches such as participatory budgets give citizens space and voice along the budget cycle, while they allow them to monitor and hold authorities accountable.   Additionally, at the sector and project level, public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS), citizen report cards (CRC) and community score cards (CSC) are also mechanisms of social accountability that can bring transparency to the way governments spend public resources to satisfy their constituencies' needs.

The overall success of any of the approaches mentioned relies on an appropriate combination of political will and commitment to transparency and accountability, and an active participation from citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs).  Without both in place, budget transparency will continue to be a big governance issue.