On February 20, 2018, a press conference was held in Kyiv to present an innovative methodology to assess the efficiency and openness of the budget funds use at the local level, so-called Local Budget Transparency Index.
On February 20, 2018, a press conference was held in Kyiv to present an innovative methodology to assess the efficiency and openness of the budget funds use at the local level, so-called Local Budget Transparency Index.
The project was implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation together with experts of the Civic Partnership “For Transparent Local Budgets” under support of the International Renaissance Foundation, the EU Delegation to Ukraine and the Partnership for Urban Development Project.
Throughout the years the International Renaissance Foundation has supported projects to help implement public administration reform, promote anti-corruption initiatives and make communication between citizens and government more convenient and open.
The methodology has more than 130 paragraphs, which can be used to assess the level of the budget process transparency in a particular city. Key evaluation parameters are as follows: access to information, transparency of decisions, and citizen involvement in the budget process.
The methodology is freely accessible, so it is possible to use it in any city to assess the transparency of the city budget process.
Experts of the Transparent Local Budget Civic Partnership have already begun to work on their own assessment of the local budget transparency levels. The rating, which, as expected, will be published this coming fall, will include all oblast centers of Ukraine as well as Kyiv city. Based on the results of the study, as anticipated, each city will receive individual recommendations as to how to improve the budget process.
“In the process of financial decentralization, this project is viewed as an effective deterrent against corruption at the local level. It provides the local government with cogent recommendations as to how to make the budget process more transparent and ensure greater public participation in it”, said Oleksiy Orlovsky, Democratic Practice Program Initiative Director of the International Renaissance Foundation.
He also emphasized that with this freely accessible methodology, local officials can self-examine their own “faults” and improve the process of allocating budget funds to achieve greater efficiency for their communities.
Photo: Ukraine Crisis Media Center
