The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian

Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI
does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology
used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.

Open Budgeting:
Principles, Practices and
the Open Budget Survey

April 2019
 Introduction: Open Budgeting
Budget transparency, participation and oversight play a
role in:
• promoting fiscal discipline
• increasing access to credit and lowering borrowing
costs
• identifying how to use public funds more effectively
• curbing corruption to help economies thrive

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 Three Pillars of Open Budgeting

Transparency Participation

Oversight

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 Three Pillars of Open Budgeting
• IMF Fiscal
Transparency Code
Transparency Participation • OECD
Recommendation on
Budgetary
Governance
• IBP Open Budget
Survey
• PEFA
• TADAT
Oversight • World Bank – IMF
Guidelines for Public
Debt Management
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 Three Pillars of Open Budgeting
• GIFT Principles of
Public Participation
Transparency Participation
• Open Budget Survey
(Section 5)
• IMF FT Code (2.3.3)
• PEFA (PI 18.2, PI
24.4) and
Supplementary
Module on Public
Participation
Oversight
• TADAT PI 3-9 and PI
9-27

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 Three Pillars of Open Budgeting
• INTOSAI
International
Transparency Participation Standards
• Inter-Parliamentary
Union Universal
Declaration
• Open Budget Survey
(Section 4)
• OCED
Recommendation on
Principles for
Oversight Independent Fiscal
Institutions

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 Three Pillars of Open Budgeting

Transparency Participation
Accountability:

Transformation of
public finance and
tangible improvements
to people’s lives

Oversight

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 Open Budgeting and the SDGs
• Tracking Spending Commitments on SDG
Priorities: Information on how governments raise and
spend public funds, and the results achieved, is central
to attaining the SDGs
• Assessing the Credibility of Spending
Commitments: Open budgeting is also central to
allowing citizens to hold their governments to account
for commitments made in budgets on spending related
to the SDGs (recognized by SDG indicator 16.6.1)

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 Open Budgeting and Inequality
• Philippines: Proposed National Budget includes a
detailed outline of how the government will prioritize
expenditure so as to contribute to poverty reduction
• Fiji: Chapter in the budget proposal with details of
programs targeting women, children, and people with
disabilities.
• Pakistan: Federal Medium-Term Estimates for Service
Delivery sets out several programs aimed at poverty
alleviation, a discussion of policy priorities, expected
outputs and budget figures for past spending and
future allocations and projections.

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 Open Budgeting and Tax Morale

“Citizens are more likely to comply with local tax

regulations when governments are more
transparent, when citizens exercise voice in the
policy process, and when governments deliver
better public services.”
– World Bank: Of Governance and Revenue Participatory
Institutions and Tax Compliance in Brazil (March 2019)

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 The Open Budget Survey

• 109 indicators used to • 18 revised questions • 18 new questions

construct the Open examine formal examine opportunities
Budget Index assess oversight institutions for public participation
whether governments in national budget
publish online and in a decision-making and
timely manner eight oversight
key budget documents

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OBS Research Process

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The Open Budget Index (OBI) 2017
• The average OBI score of the 115 countries surveyed in 2017 is 42 out of
100, suggesting that the global state of transparency is limited

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 Open Budget Index 2017: Asia Pacific
• Top global performers 60
• New Zealand (89)
• South Africa (89)
• Sweden (87)
• Norway (85) 40
• Georgia (82)

• Top Asia & Pacific

performers: 20 40 42
• Philippines (67)
• Indonesia (64)
• Kyrgyzstan (55)
• Kazakhstan (53)
0
• Nepal (52) Asia & Pacific Global Average
18 countries 115 countries
Only 61% of documents are published

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 About 65% of documents in Asia and
Pacific countries are published
Percentage of documents published

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Of Asia-Pacific country documents
that are published, key details missing
Open Budget Index score of published documents

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Global increases in transparency halted
• The average OBI score fell from 45 in 2015 to 43 in 2017
for the 102 countries surveyed in both rounds

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Lower global OBI score reflects decline in
document publication
• Net number of documents published declined by 37
– First time survey found a drop in document publication

• Asia and Pacific countries did not contribute to this decline;

they published the same number of documents in 2017 as
2015
– But some volatility: 17 documents stopped being published,
while 17 documents started being published

• Regularly publishing key budget documents is one tangible

way that governments can improve their transparency
practices

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 Changes in OBI scores: Asia & Pacific
• Eight countries
increased by more 2012 2015 2017
than five - 2015 to 60

2017
• Nepal (+28)
• Fiji (+25) 46
• Cambodia (+13) 40 43 44
40
36 36
• Three countries
decreased by more
than five - 2015 to 20
2017
• Bangladesh (-15)
• Papua New
Guinea (-6) 0
• Mongolia (-6) Asia & Pacific Global Average
18 countries 18 countries
Scores on participation are low
• Not a single country out of the 115 surveyed offers
participation opportunities that are considered adequate (a
score of 61 or higher)

• The average global score is just 12 out of 100

• Only 4 countries have scores that indicate limited

opportunities for public participation: Australia, New
Zealand, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom

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 Participation: Asia and Pacific

Asia & Pacific 13

Global Average 12

0 10 20 30 40
Legislative oversight is limited
• Legislatures exercise more oversight earlier in the budget
process than during implementation

• Legislatures amend the budget in over half of the countries

surveyed…

• In more than one-third of countries, legislatures do not

examine any Audit Reports produced by Supreme Audit
Institutions

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Legislative oversight
Asia-Pacific Countries
grouped by 2017
• Average score for Asia and Legislative Oversight Score
Pacific countries is 48, 10
9
equal to the global average 9
8
7 7
• Generally, legislative 7
oversight is stronger during 6
5
formulation than during 4
execution phase 3
2
1
0
0-40 41-60 61-100
Weak Limited Adequate

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Supreme Audit Institution oversight
Asia-Pacific Countries
• Average score for Asia and grouped by 2017
SAI Oversight Score
pacific countries is 65, just 18
16
above global average of 63 16

• 16 countries have 14
12
conditions for SAI to
10
perform adequate oversight 8

• 9 countries score over 70, 6

4
including 5 that score 4 3
2
over 80
0
0-40 41-60 61-100
Weak Limited Adequate

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www.InternationalBudget.org 26
 Thank You

Contact Information:
International Budget Partnership
info@internationalbudget.org

Sally Torbert, Program Officer for Asia

storbert@internationalbudget.org

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