Georgia ranks 16th in world for budget transparency

Georgia is steadily improving its international reputation by making Governmental and financial dealings of the country more transparent. 

Results of the Open Budget Survey (OBS) released today by the International Budget Partnership ranked Georgia 16th in the world, based on an analysis of 102 nations’ budget transparency, participation and oversight. Using 109 indicators to measure budget transparency, countries were given a score out of 100 for each category that measured how governments managed public finances. 

The 2015 result for Georgia was a significant improvement on recent years; the last OBS in 2012 ranked Georgia in 33rd place. 

Globally New Zealand ranked number one in the Open Budget Index 2015 for having the most budget transparency, while Qatar and Saudi Arabia ranked at the bottom of the survey of 102 nations.

For Georgia this year’s results revealed the improvements over all three categories – Transparency, Public Participation and Budget Oversight.

In the Transparency index, Georgia was found to provide the public with "substantial budget information” and gained a score of 66/100.

This result ensured Georgia rank as the second most transparent nation in the region, behind Russia who gained a score of 77/100. In third place following Georgia was Kyrgyzstan (54/100), then Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, who all scored 51/100. The global average in this category was 51/100.

Meanwhile results of the Public Participation index revealed Georgia needed to take more action to ensure greater public civic participation. In this category Georgia scored 46/100, which indicated the public was provided with "limited 

opportunities to engage in budget processes” however this score was higher than the global average score of 25.

In the third category – Budget Oversight - Georgia was offered a score of 73/100, where surveyors said "budget oversight … in Georgia [was] adequate”. 

In future, in order to gain a higher overall ranking the survey offered several recommendations to Georgia. 

The OBS said Georgia should prioritise the following actions to improve budget transparency:

• Produce and publish a Mid-Year Review;

• Increase the comprehensiveness of the Executive’s Budget Proposal by, for example, presenting verifiable (quantitative) output and outcome indicators in the program budget appendix that can help measure deliverables in the subprograms and their impact over the period of four years; and Increase the comprehensiveness of the Year-End Report.

Georgia should prioritise the following actions to improve budget participation:

• Establish credible and effective mechanisms (eg, public hearings, surveys, focus groups) for capturing a range of public perspectives on budget matters;
• Ensure the public is informed of the purpose of public budget engagements and provided with sufficient information to participate effectively; and
• Provide detailed feedback on how public assistance and participation has been used by the supreme audit institution.

Georgia should prioritise the following actions to strengthen budget oversight:

• In both law and practice, ensure the legislature is consulted prior to the spending of contingency funds that were not identified in the Enacted Budget.

OBS is regarded as the world’s only independent, comparable measure of budget transparency, participation and oversight. Research to complete Georgia’s Open Budget Survey was undertaken by Transparency International Georgia.

To view the full survey, click here. 

Internationalbudget.org