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OECD
Best Practices on Budget Transparency
At
its 1999 annual meeting, the OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials asked
the OECD Secretariat to draw together a set of best practices related to budget
transparency based on member countries' experiences. The OECD Best Practices are
a useful tool because they provide a clear list of the budget documents that all
countries should issue at each stage of the budget process. They also include a
clear description of the information that should be contained in each document.
The document covers transparency at the central government level only, and so
does not provide guidance regarding subnational government.
Click below to download the document.
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IMF
Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency
The IMF Fiscal Transparency code was developed in response to the financial
crises of the 1990s. The resulting code of good practices is intended to be
applicable to developing and to developed countries alike. It calls for
transparency of the public sector as whole (meaning both the central and
subnational governments should be transparent). It is useful for its attention
to practices that frequently undermine accountability in developing countries,
such as expenditure arrears and quasi-fiscal activities. The Code is accompanied
by a manual that provides further explanation on how the code should be
interpreted and applied, and a questionnaire to guide government officials in
collecting information to evaluate transparency practices.
Click below to download the document.
Code
Manual
Questionnaire
IMF
Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC): Country Reports
The ROSC’s
are summaries of the assessments that IMF staff conduct on the observance of
selected standards relevant to private and financial sector development and
stability. These include assessments on fiscal transparency, on transparency and
accountability related to central banks (monetary and financial policy
transparency), and on banking supervision. For a complete list of all twelve
standards and codes,
click here.
To check which
countries the IMF has recently completed an evaluation of in any of its twelve
Standards and Codes
click here.
United
Nations INTOSAI’s
Lima Declaration of Guidelines on Auditing Precepts
The Lima Declaration is intended to provide criteria to ensure the independence
and effectiveness of government auditing. This document provides the basic
principles that must be respected in a country’s constitution and its
implementing legislation to ensure the independence of the Supreme Audit
Institution from the executive. It also details other important aspects of its
investigative mandates and practices to ensure its effective functioning .
Click below to download the document.
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United
Nations Development Program’s Country Assessment in Accountability and
Transparency
(CONTACT)
The
Country Assessment in Accountability and Transparency (CONTACT) was developed by
the United Nations to provide the international development community with a
tool to assess a country’s financial architecture and integrity systems. It is
highly recommended, for its comprehensive and concise overview on public
sector budgeting and financial management systems.
Click
here to download the document.
World
Bank Public Expenditure Management Handbook
This handbook presents an overview of public expenditure management reforms,
emphasizing institutional arrangements. It also contains an interesting section
describing historical approaches to public sector reform.
Click
here to download the document.
OECD/World
Bank Database on Budget Practices and Procedures
The OECD/World Bank Budget Practices and Procedures Database provides comparable
information on nearly 300 aspects of budget formulation, approval,
implementation and audit phases in each OECD member country and in 30 non-member
countries. The information provided by this database is frequently extremely
useful, although some observers have noted that all data is provided by
government officials, which may impact its accuracy.
Click here to access the database.
Country
Budget Laws Database
The World Bank has compiled this useful database that provides access to the
laws that govern the budget process in over 60 countries. A country’s budget
process law (known in some countries as the budget code or public finance act)
can contain important provisions related to the timing of the public release of
budget information.
Click
here to access the database.
Freedom
of Information Around the World 2006
Highly detailed information on a specific expenditure program is sometimes not included in a country’s budget documents. In some countries, the right to
information is essential to gaining access to information and monitoring. This
document presents a compilation of country reports for all countries which have
a right to information law. Each country report contains the provisions of each
country’s law(s). This useful reference lists legal provisions related to the
rights of citizens with respect to government information.
Click here
to download the document.
Public
Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)
The PEFA Program started in December, 2001 and is composed of eight partner
multilateral organizations. The goals of the PEFA Program are to strengthen
recipient and donor ability to assess the condition of country public
expenditure, procurement and financial accountability systems, and develop a
practical sequence of reform and capacity-building actions.
It has developed a set of indicators intended to assist in the evaluation of public
financial management systems.
Click here to access the web site.
Citizens Budget
A
citizens budget is a summary of the national budget designed to reach and be
understood by as large a segment of the population as possible. This type of
document promotes budget transparency and accountability by making budget
information more accessible. It should not serve as a replacement for a
country’s detailed annual budget documents, but rather as an important
supplement. Below are some examples of citizens budgets. Click on the document
title to view the document.
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