1. An Assessment of the Fiscal Transparency of GIFT Stewards
GIFT Stewards’ Meeting
Cascais, Portugal - October 16, 2018
Murray Petrie
Lead Technical Advisor
@fiscaltrans

2. Overview
An assessment of fiscal openness in 20 countries that are GIFT Stewards and Partners, using data from the Open Budget Survey, IMF Fiscal Transparency Evaluations, PEFA Reports, the US State Department Fiscal Transparency Report 2018, and current OGP commitments.
Aim is to provide information to support peer learning, facilitate discussion of actions steward governments are considering or taking to increase fiscal openness, and to promote more ambitious and better implemented reforms and OGP commitments. 2

3. Table 1: Steward, Partner performance on the Open Budget Index
OBS vintage
2006 OBI
2008 OBI
2010 OBI
2012 OBI
2015 OBI
2017 OBI D
first to last
Argentina 40 56 50 59 10 -9
Benin 1 45 39 38 -6
Brazil 74 71 73 77 3
Chile 72 66 58 57
-15 -1
Colombia 61 -7
Croatia 42 53 15 4
Dom. Republic 12 14 29 51 54
Egypt 19 43 49 13 16 41 22 25
El Salvador 28 37 17 -8
Guatemala 46
Indonesia 62 64 5
Liberia 36 33 -2
Mexico 55 52 79
Nigeria 20 18 24 -3
Paraguay
Philippines 48 67
South Africa 86 87 92 90 89
Tunisia 11
U.S.A. 81 82 -4
Ukraine 8 3

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5. Stewards’ performance on OBS
Major improvements from first survey to 2017 survey: Dom. Republic (54 points), Benin (38), Liberia (33), Mexico (29), Tunisia (28), and Indonesia and Egypt (22).
Significant improvements : Egypt (25), Dom. Republic (15), Guatemala (15), Mexico (13), Ukraine (8).
Significant declines from first survey to 2017 survey: Chile (-15), and Colombia (-7).
Significant declines : Argentina (-9), El Salvador (-8), Colombia (-7), Nigeria (-7), and Benin (-6).
12 of 20 countries failed to provide ‘sufficient information to the public on their national budgets’ i.e. OBI score of 60 or less.
Only South Africa publishes ‘extensive information on the budget’ (80+)
Tunisia did not publish the audit report. 5

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8. Stewards’ performance on public participation by executive branch
From the 2017 OBS, four GIFT steward governments achieve a significant amount of public participation by the executive branch: the Philippines (41), Mexico (39), South Africa (24) and Guatemala (21).
But nine steward governments have scores of zero or near zero for public participation by the executive branch, representing major scope for improvement. 8

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10. Stewards’ performance on PEFA indicator: Public availability of key fiscal information
Published PEFA reports show improvements in the public availability of key fiscal information in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Liberia, and the Philippines, and stable (or single) top scores for Brazil, Guatemala, and South Africa.
Declining public access to key fiscal information has been assessed for Benin, Paraguay and Tunisia.
Four countries – Benin, Egypt, Nigeria and Uruguay - have had PEFA assessments that have not been published (publication requires consent of the country authorities). 10

11. Fiscal Transparency Report
US State Department’s 2018
Fiscal Transparency Report
Assesses fiscal transparency in 141 countries in 2017.
Availability, completeness and reliability of key budget documents, plus transparency of natural resource contracts.
Findings:
13 GIFT stewards meet minimum FT requirements:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia.
6 stewards/partners did not meet minimum requirements:
Benin, Dom. Republic, Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria, Ukraine
Of these 6, the first 3 countries assessed as having made significant progress 11

12. Stewards’ fiscal transparency commitments in current OGP Action Plans
Most commitments are related to:
HLP 3: disclosure of past, present and forecast fiscal information (49 commitments)
HLP 4: transparency of outputs/public services (27 commits.)
HLP 10: direct public participation (17 commitments)
There are few commitments relating to legislative oversight (HLP 8), and independent audit (HLP 9)
There are no commitments relating to citizen right to fiscal information (HLP 1), or transparency of macro-fiscal policy (HLP 3) 12

13. Stewards’ OGP commitments: HLP 3
Past, present and future fiscal information
3a) Budget transparency general
Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Colombia, Guatemala, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay
3b) Fiscal Reporting
Argentina, Colombia, Croatia
3c) Revenues general
Chile, Guatemala, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uruguay
3d) Natural resource revenues
Chile, Colombia, Nigeria, Philippines, Tunisia, Ukraine, USA
3e) External financing
USA
3f) Public investment mgmt.
Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, USA
3g) Open fiscal data
Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Uruguay, USA
3h) SDGs
Brazil, USA 13

14. Stewards’ OGP commitments: HLP 4 Outputs and outcomes (public services)
4a) Performance information
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Uruguay, USA
4b) Social monitoring
Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Uruguay, USA 14

15. Stewards’ OGP commitments
HLP 10: Direct
public participation
Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay, USA 15

16. Selected current OGP commitments
Argentina:
- Capacity building in the analysis of public accounts
- Bring the budget closer to the citizen
Open contracting; procurement of medical supplies
Croatia - Fiscal Transparency: additional information in state budget (fiscal impacts of budget initiatives, public debt, contingent liabilities); timely publication of monthly reports, and annual report; citizens guide to budget.
Dominican Republic
Expand the Transactional Portal of Public Procurement
Space for citizen-government interaction, citizen proposals on national budget
Nigeria
- Enhance transparency in extractive sector
- Tax Reporting Standards - common reporting standards, Addis Tax initiative.
- Progressively implement open contracting
- Ensure more effective citizens’ participation across the entire budget cycle
- Ease of Doing Business Transparency Portal 16

17. Selected current OGP commitments
Ukraine
Implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Transparent budget system. Implementation of first stage of integrated “Transparent budget” information and analysis system.
Implement Construction Sector Transparency Initiative
Uruguay
Web info on planning, budget, results, built in conjunction with users.
Info on construction of new schools and maintenance
Open contracting
Link civil society to audit cycle
Publish open data of the DNI showing execution of investment projects
Implement National Open Data Plan (including Budget Law)
Adapt open data to open contracting
School maintenance plans carried out with participation of the educational community 17

18. Engage with us!
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@fiscaltransparency