GIFT
Public Participation in
Fiscal Policy and Budget
Making Award How
public institutions and
CSOc are changing the game
GIFT
is honored to announce the
results of the Public
Participation in Fiscal
Policy and Budget Making
Award. The network ‘s
Coordination Team received
16 submissions documenting
quite varied and amazing
experiences coming from all
range of actors in the
fiscal transparency and
accountability ecosystem,
from 13 countries (Brazil,
Chile, Georgia, Germany,
Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico,
Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay,
Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, and Portugal).
We were very
pleased to have
received proposals coming
from both government and
civil society organizations,
and that winners came from
both types. This reflects
the interest in public
participation from all
actors. Of these 16 cases:
11
were implemented by
state institutions (MoF,
local governments and
Supreme Audit
Institutions), and 5 by
civil society
organizations;
6
are subnational level
only (4 of which are
participatory
budgeting);
3
are participation with
respect to public
services
3
involve Supreme Audit
Institutions
We
are very happy to announce
that the top considered
mechanisms were proposed
by a local government in
Portugal, the Court of
Audit of Georgia, and a
CSO in Mexico.
Congratulations!
Taking home the top prizes
were the Cascais
Participatory Budgeting,
implemented by the
Municipality of Cascais, Portugal;
the Farm
Subsidies:
Public participation to
improve the situation of
small farmers in Mexico,
executed by the CSO Fundar,
Center for Analysis and
Research; and Georgia’s
Budget
Monitor,
implemented by the State
Audit Office. These cases
are invited to attend the
Open Government Partnership
Regional Meeting in
Argentina (Buenos Aires,
November 20-22) to present
their experience. We will
see you there!
The GIFT
Selection Committee had a
very hard task selecting the
best 3 cases. A Special
Mention Award from the Jury
went to the Citizen
Participatory Audit case of
the Commission on Audit of
the Republic of the Philippines,
another case presented by a
Supreme Audit Institution,
that has already been
documented in GIFT’s Guide
on Public Participation
Principles and Mechanisms
(see https://fiscaltransparency.net/citizen-participatory-audit-in-the-philippines/ ) and
published as part of a case
study
produced as the GIFT
effort to share with
practitioners, success
experience on public
participation in fiscal
policies.
GIFT was
so pleased with other cases
that we will try to
document, in the coming
months, many more. We will
be in touch with other
fantastic proposals, aiming
at publishing soon at least
3 additional cases, besides
the 3 finalists.
The Municipality of
Cascais, with a population
of 206.000, has ran the
Participatory Budget for 6
years, involving more than
150.000 citizens,
implementing 88 projects
(works) worth 15.820.000€
and has strengthened
people’s confidence in their
governors. Moreover, their
methodology has been
replicated in more than 10
cities and observed by
different continents. Farm
Subsidies (Subsidios al
Campo) is a public
participation case led by a
public interest group, a
peasant organization, and a
group of academics and
technical experts that uses
Mexico‘s Freedom of
information laws to obtain
official data on the
recipients of agricultural
subsidies, which is analyzed
and disseminated widely
through a user-friendly
website
(www.subsidiosalcampo.org.mx).
Through this online public
database, Subsidios al
Campo improved the
transparency of government
farm subsidies, and
identified a
disproportionate, and
inequitable, concentration
of subsidy recipients in the
wealthiest 10 percent of
farmers. The analyses helped
explain how this happened,
and the advocacy supported
by this evidence contributed
to reforms in the subsidy
programs. Georgia´s Budget
Monitor is a recent
initiative that offers a
unique analytical
web-platform with
comprehensive information
about public finances,
designed from an auditor’s
perspective via different
data visualization tools,
such as interactive and
user-friendly diagrams,
info-graphics and tables.
Further, to engage the
public constructively
throughout the audit cycle,
through the Budget Monitor
platform, citizens can send
audit requests, suggestions,
and proposals, inform the
SAOG about the deficiencies
in the PFM system, and
suggest the priority spheres
for future audit(s).
Additionally, the Jury
awarded a special mention to
the Citizen Participatory
Audit of the Commission on
Audit of the Republic of the
Philippines, a
practice that involves
citizens as member of the
Commission audit teams in
conducting audits.
Strengthening
the role of congress in
fiscal policy. GIFT at the
ParlAmericas Workshop in
Port of Spain, Trinidad
and Tobago
The Workshop:
“Strengthening
Accountability through
Fiscal Transparency
Practices” took place on
September 6, gathering MPs
from 14 countries of the
Anglophone Caribbean (See
Agenda).
Participants discussed
how they can promote
fiscal transparency
practices to strengthen
the role of the
Legislative in the fiscal
policy and budget making.
GIFT’s Network director,
Juan Pablo Guerrero,
contributed with two
presentations: one on “Fiscal
Openness and
Opportunities”
that comprised an
exposition on how fiscal
transparency norms have
evolved during the last 20
years, including the
development of GIFTHigh
Level Principles on
Fiscal Transparency,
and the Principles
of Public
Participation in
Fiscal Policy. GIFT’s
second presentation was on
“Public
Participation in
Fiscal Policies”,
providing an overview of
the concept and principles
that GIFT
upholds, as well as
examples of public
participation in the
budget process, which are
included in the Guide
on Principles and
Mechanisms of Public
Participation in
Fiscal Policy.
Additionally, Juan Pablo
Guerrero commented on the
usefulness of the working
document ParlAmericas
Toolkit: Citizen
Participation in the
Legislative Process,
which “provides a sampling
of existing practices for
parliamentary engagement
with citizens across the
Americas and the Caribbean
to insight reflection on
the integration of such
opportunities throughout
legislative processes. It
aims to engage legislators
and civil society in a
constructive dialogue to
support the evolution of
such practices while also
acknowledging and
mitigating challenges and
risks in their
implementation.”
COMMUNITY
WALL
Launch
of a full English version
of the Economic
Transparency Portal of
Colombia
The Ministry of Finance
has launched a full English
version of the Economic
Transparency Portal of
Colombia. Here the public
can consult the information
of budget and payments of
the general system of
national income share, from
a single map,
where the citizen can find
the information presented by
department even at the
detail by municipality.
Check it out: http://www.pte.gov.co/WebsitePTE/Index
Data
Containerization hits
v1.0! GIFT
partner, Open Knowledge
International, announces a
major milestone in the
frictionless data
initiative
Frictionless
Data is
a collection of
lightweight specifications
and tooling for effortless
collection, sharing, and
validation of data. After
close to 10 years of
iterative work on the
specifications themselves,
and the last 6 months of
fine-tuning v1.0 release
candidates, OKI announces
the availability of the
following of v1.0
specifications including Table
Schema, CSV
Dialect, Data
Package,
and Data
Resource,
and Code libraries that
implement the v1.0
specifications in Python, Javascript, Ruby,
and PHP,
with R, Go,
and Java in
active development.
But, what is frictionless
data? Check this blog out:
https://blog.okfn.org/2017/09/05/frictionless-data-v1-0/ and
don’t miss the video on
the bottom with Rufus
Pollock, OKI President and
Co-founder, brilliantly
explaining the promising
impact of containerization
of data packages!
The
Mexican Tax Administration
Service publishes
information in open data
The Mexican Tax
Administration Service (Servicio
de Administración
Tributaria- SAT)
has an open data section
in its website. Here (http://www.sat.gob.mx/cifras_sat/Paginas/inicio.html),
the public can access
relevant statistical
information such as the
taxpayer registry
presented by type, status
or state of the country,
tax returns presented per
year, statistics on tax
audits, and statistics on
tax refunds, among others.
This publication is
available since 2015.
Argentina´s General
Audit Office (AGN in
Spanish) organizes
participatory planning
workshops every year on
different themes (such as
environment, transport,
health, among others).
These thematic meetings
are a mechanism for
citizen consultation
through which the AGN
incorporates proposals
from civil society for its
annual audit planning. In
addition, through these
thematic workshops SAI
representatives from
technical units’ highlight
audit findings, and expect
citizen input on the
issues and topic under
audit. The institutional
relevance and general
impact of Supreme Audit
Institutions (SAIs)’s work
is significantly increased
if the preferences and
interests of the ultimate
beneficiaries are actively
considered in the design
and performance of their
work. Read here
how this Supreme Audit
Institution has put in
place a mechanism to seek
feedback from citizens on
their auditing plans to
better reflect citizen
priorities.
Beneficios
de la Guía de
participación pública
María
José Eva, Encargada de
Programas para América
Latina IBP – International
Budget Partnership
UPCOMING
EVENTS
•
On September 19, GIFT
will be part of
“Rebuilding Trust in
Government”, an Open
Government Partnership
side event to the 72nd
United Nations General
Assembly. Hosted by the
current and incoming OGP
Co-Chairs, this event will
bring together an
international coalition of
Heads of State and
Government, civil society
organizations, and civic
tech entrepreneurs to
promote transparency in
public action, citizen
participation, and
democratic innovation for
rebuilding trust in
government.
• On September 21, GIFT
network members such as
IBP, the World Bank and
the IMF, with JPGA, will
participate in the
Credit rating agencies event
in New York City, which is
organized by our partner,
the Emerging Marker
Alliance.
• On September 28, GIFT
will join our Steward, the
Office of Planning and
Budget of Uruguay, in the
launching of its
Transparency Portal, for
whose development GIFT has
provided technical
assistance.
• On October 10-11, stay
tuned for GIFT
General Stewards Meeting,
to take place at The Mitre
Corporation’s (GIFT
Steward) headquarters in
the Washington DC area.
