Budget Transparency

The NGO Forum’s work on budget transparency

The NGO Forum’s Budget Project cooperates with the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in its research for the Open Budget Initiative (OBI) which surveys the level of transparency throughout the budget process in more than eighty countries. The result of the 2008 OBI survey for Cambodia showed that Cambodia produces seven of the key budget documents as per good international practice; however, only three were publicly available at that time. These include: the Annual Budget Law (Enacted Budget), the Monthly Report (In-Year Reports), and the Year-end Report. The four budget documents that were not available publicly, were: the Pre-Budget Statement, the Annual Draft Budget Law (Executive’s Budget Proposal), the Mid Year Review and the Audit Report. The result of the 2010 OBI survey for Cambodia shows a slight improvement in budget transparency, due mainly to the Royal Government making public the Instructing Circular on Guidelines for Preparation of the Draft Budget Law (Pre-Budget Statement) in a timely manner.

During the first three years of its budget work, the NGO Forum has noted that the Royal Government is gradually putting more budget information out in the public domain. The release of the 2006 National Audit Report from the National Audit Authority in October 2009 was a significant step forward as it is the first audit report that has been made public since the establishment of the National Audit Authority in March 2000. In addition, transparency is an important element in the Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PFMRP) of the Royal Government and it is therefore expected that this positive trend will continue in coming years.

The International Budget Partnership

The International Budget Partnership (IBP) was formed within the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to collaborate with civil society organizations in developing countries, to analyze, monitor, and influence government budget processes, institutions, and outcomes. The IBP created the Open Budget Index (OBI) from the Survey to easily measure the overall surveyed countries’ commitment to transparency and to allow for comparisons among countries. The OBI assigns a score to each country based on the information it makes available to the public throughout the budget process.

The Open Budget Initiative is a global research and advocacy program to promote public access to budget information and the adoption of accountability in budget systems. Its Open Budget Survey 2008, is a comprehensive evaluation of budget transparency in 85 countries, found that the state of budget transparency around the world is deplorable. This encourages inappropriate, wasteful, and corrupt spending and—because it shuts the public out of decision making—reduces the legitimacy and impact of anti-poverty initiatives. At the same time, the Survey shows a number of countries have significantly improved their performance over the past two years. It also shows that many more governments could quickly improve budget transparency at low cost by making publicly available the budget information that they already produce for their donors or for internal use.

The OBI survey 2008, found that among of 85 countries, Cambodia is ranked in the category of the Open Budget Index among a group of 25 countries that provide scant information to the public. Cambodia scores 11%  which is the same score as Honduras and the Dominican Republic, 17 countries have lower OBI scores and 65 countries have a higher score based on the index. The OBI survey results for 2010 found that Cambodia’s International Budget Transparency Ranking is among 22 other countries who also provide scant information to their public. Based on the same index, Cambodia and KyrgyzRepublic received identical scores while 19 countries received lower with 73 countries performed better overall.

Please visit the Publications section for more information on budget transparency in Cambodia, including a Budget Transparency Brief, as well as results from the Open Budget Survey 2008 & 2010.