Hosted by GIFT’s
Steward MITRE Corporation,
the network members held
their second 2017 General
Stewards Meeting. The
meeting was very well
attended, with participants
coming from 20 countries.
Representatives from 16
governments, 5 foundations,
2 IFIs and 21 CSOs –with 30
out of 37 stewards,
including six lead
stewards– all came together
for a two-day stewards
meeting (October 10-11). The
network started a discussion
about transparency and
public participation in tax
policy and administration.
Presentations by experts,
and practitioners covered a
range of issues: from the
impact of corruption on
total tax revenue and the
impact of institutions, the
importance of estimating the
tax gap, the need to shed
light on tax expenditures
and their social cost,
issues of privacy when
attempting to provide
greater transparency of tax
information, including
shedding light on disturbing
wealth concentration and a
regressive tax burden, among
other topics.
The other topic
discussed at length was open
data, fiscal transparency
portals and the
communication of budget
information. There was a
presentation by the US
Treasury on their experience
of open data focused on the
process of implementing the
Open Data Act, which tracks
almost $4 trillion in annual
federal spending. In the
process of effecting the law
and creating the website to
publish the data, they
consulted citizens through
several channels, in order
to take into account the
views of potential users.
Other country
representatives from Brazil,
Colombia, Croatia, Mexico,
and Uruguay, among, others
reflected on the US
experience presenting their
own initiatives and
progress. Other areas of
discussion were the
granularity of spending on
public service delivery, how
to create and use an IT
platform that promotes the
development of this
community of practice and
enhances peer-learning; how
to achieve stronger
engagement in Africa; and
communicating budget reforms
to investors, among others.
The main conclusions of the
meeting include the need to
further work on public
participation, including
promoting and advancing
practices that really
incorporate the
inclusiveness principle and
the human rights
perspective. The network
should more clearly stress
the need to speak with
users, to engage governments
on training for public
participation, to use means
and tools to connect
interactively with citizens,
such as social media,
citizens’ budget at school
levels, elaborate on
examples that touch people’s
lives and case studies in
facility level budget
information disclosure.
Similarly, more work is
needed on services delivery
experiences where public
participation and access to
granular information become
key factors for success in
the implementation of the
policies.
On peer learning, GIFT
should continue engaging in
a useful dialogue system,
using more actively the
community of practice and
addressing the questions and
suggestions provided during
the discussion with the
stewards, which were
structured around the
findings and recommendations
of a recent
report
commissioned by GIFT.
Finally, taking advance of
the high level and plural
discussion on tax
transparency and
participation, the GIFT
coordination team will
provide a clear proposal on
this new subject for the
network, in order to have a
proposal to discuss in the
next stewards meeting.
The minutes, executive
summary and materials of the
meeting are here.
Linked
with the Open Fiscal Data
Package, Mexico launches
the Open Contracting Data
Standard
On November 8, the
Secretariat of Finance and
Public Credit, the
Secretariat of Public
Function and the National
Digital Strategy
Coordination, in
collaboration with the
National Institute of
Transparency, Access to
Information and Protection
of Personal Data, Mexican
Transparency, the World
Bank, the Open Contracting
Partnership and GIFT,
launched the Platform for
Open Contracts of the
Government of the
Republic, which includes
data and visualizations of
all stages of the
procurement processes of
the centralized public
administration and is
linked with the open data
information of the federal
budget (published in 2016
using the OFDP). Since
2016, the Federal Mexican
government has
collaborated with the
World Bank and the Open
Contracting Partnership,
to adapt and implement the
Open Contracting Data
Standard (#EDCAmx) in the
contracting processes of
the federal public
administration.
Simultaneously, since
2016, the Finance
Secretariat has worked
with GIFT
to disclose the federal
budget in open data
format. With this step,
Mexico becomes the first
country to link national
budget information with
procurement and
contracting transaction
level information on open
data, an innovation that
links international open
data standards, in a way
that allow users to track
the budget down to
implementation units
contracts, in a way that
puts the user of such
information at the center.
GPSA
Global Partners Forum
2017. Citizen action for
open, accountable and
inclusive societies
The Global Partners
Forum of the Global
Partnership for Social
Accountability (GPSA)
takes place annually at
the World Bank
headquarters in
Washington, DC. It
convenes the GPSA’s Global
Partners
Network consisting of
practitioners and thought
leaders across civil
society, governments,
academia and business,
alongside World Bank
professionals. Stewards,
partners and the GIFT
team participated in the
2017 Forum (October
30-November 1), which was
designed to align with
Sustainable Development
Goal 16 and focuses
attention on the role of
citizen action in building
effective, accountable and
inclusive societies.
Three
key questions were
addressed in the various
workshop rounds and
plenaries:
How
does the changing
governance landscape
directly affect the
field of social
accountability for
development and, more
importantly, what
responses have emerged
to address these
challenges? 2. In what
manner and to what
extent have state
institutions embraced
and incorporated citizen
feedback and social
accountability
mechanisms, and what
does this experience
teach us? 3. What’s new
in the field of social
accountability? What
roles are emerging
innovative approaches,
organizations, and
funding mechanisms
playing in the field,
and to what extent are
they delivering on their
promise and aspirations?
To what extent are
innovative approaches
taking root, vis-à-vis
traditional models?
To
learn more, check out
meeting information and
materials here.
Promoting
the use of fiscal
transparency portals &
budget data communication
strategies in the
Dominican Republic
As part of a
collaboration between two
GIFT
stewards, the United
States Department of the
Treasury and the Dominican
Republic’s Ministry of
Finance (MoF) to improve
the communication of
budget information, the GIFT
team participated in a
technical assistance
mission, from October 16
to 20.
Different meetings
were held with
representatives from CSOs,
MoF, Congressional
commissions, AmCham
Economic Committee and
universities on how to
prioritize MoF strategy of
advancing the effective
use of its Fiscal
Transparency Portal, as
well as of social media.
To that end, successful
experiences in promoting
the visualization of
fiscal transparency
information were
discussed. As a result of
this visit, the Financial
Integration Team of the
MoF reiterated their
commitment to advancing
the fiscal transparency
agenda, and to seek to
accelerate this by
learning from peers of the
GIFT
network.
Working
on a new version of the
fiscal transparency portal
of El Salvador
The GIFT
team also engaged with the
Ministry of Finance of El
Salvador, a GIFT
steward, to explore ways
in which the fiscal
transparency portal could
be improved. The European
Union is supporting El
Salvador to ensure an
updated and timely version
of the portal with more
accessible and meaningful
information, responding to
the users. Multiple
meetings have been held
between all relevant
stakeholders in an effort
that will continue in the
coming months and that
included the attendance of
Ministry of Finance
Representatives from El
Salvador to a fiscal
transparency workshop in
Argentina, at the OGP
regional meeting.
GIFT
at the launch of
Corruption: Its Path and
Impact on Society and an
Agenda to Combat It in the
Northern Triangle of
Central America, produced
by the Central American
Institute for Fiscal
Studies (ICEFI)
On October 12, Ricardo
Barrientos, senior
economist with ICEFI, GIFT
Steward, and a contributor
to the study, presented
the newly released report
Corruption: Its Path
and Impact on Society
and an Agenda to Combat
It in the Northern
Triangle of Central
America. The report
is a comparative study of
the relationship between
corruption and democracy
in the Northern Triangle
countries of El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras.
While the challenges of
corruption and impunity
are widely understood to
undermine confidence in
public institutions, the
rule of law, and
democratic governance,
ICEFI’s new report moves
beyond generalities and
highlights the main paths
of corruption within each
state. The report
quantifies the social
costs of corruption – for
example, highlighting the
percentage of different
Ministries’ budgets lost
to specific corruption
cases or schemes, and its
impact on public goods and
services. The presentation
was commented by Juan
Pablo Guerrero, GIFT’s
Network Director.
A
new Budget Implementation
Information Index at the
State Level in Mexico was
launched
The Mexican Institute for
Competitiveness (IMCO) in
Mexico launched the index
on information of the
State Level budget
implementation, which
assesses the transparency
of the information about
budget implementation in
the 32 States of Mexico.
This is a relevant effort
for those interested in
knowing not only how
transparency are the
intentions of policy
makers about how to spend
public resources, but more
particularly how
transparent is the
information about how the
resources are actually
spent in the
implementation phase of
the budget cycle.
The Index and information
about the launching are here.
GIFT
Team is happy to
welcome David
Abouem, our new
Representative in
Africa who will be
permanently based in
the Region
David joins the GIFT
Team to strengthen our
presence and work with
many countries in the
African continent. Based
in Yaoundé, he is an
active member of the civil
society in Cameroon. A
Senior Civil Administrator
by training, he served in
government many years in
different capacities,
serving as Permanent
Secretary in Ministerial
departments, inspector
general, provincial
governor, and member of
government (Minister). He
also worked as a
consultant with
Transparency International
and contributed to the
creation of the Cameroon
Chapter. He also served
with the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP)
in a good governance
program in West Africa. He
is active in many programs
and projects dealing with
transparency,
accountability and other
related governance issues
for many civil society
organizations,
international development
and financial partners, as
well as local governments
and public administration
in Cameroon. David will
help the GIFT
network in its currents
efforts to engage more
intensively with several
countries in the region
who are willing to advance
fiscal transparency and
participation in the
budget process. Welcome
David!
COMMUNITY
WALL
A
series of OGP blogs on
participatory budgeting
Authors Brian Wampler,
Stephanie McNulty and
Michael Touchton are
releasing a series of three
blogs on participatory
budgeting. The first one
focuses on how participatory
budgeting was introduced and
analyzes the causal chains
producing social and
political change. The second
post discusses how PB has
transformed over the past 20
years, as the rules and
structures of many PB
programs are now quite
different from the founding
Porto Alegre experience. In
the third and final post,
the focus is on impact to
highlight what we know about
PB’s impact as well as the
unknowns.
In Bangladesh, Union
Parishads (UP), the lowest
level of the local
government, are obliged to
prepare and present their
budgets to local people in
an “open budget session”.
The annual income and
expenditure statements of
the Union Parishad are
generally presented at
this open budget meeting
along with the succeeding
year’s income and
expenditure plan. The
respective UP chairman
announces the budget of
the UP in front of local
people. People can raise
questions, queries and
make comments on any of
the issues of the proposed
budget and plan. This
practice takes place at
the local budget
formulation stage of the
fiscal policy cycle. In
its present form, it can
be labeled as a top down
approach and always
initiated by the executive
Branch (the Union
Parishad). A study
reveals that around 80% of
the Unions seem to hold
the open budget meeting,
although the quality of
the budget document is not
known.
This practice illustrates
the principles of
timeliness, respect for
self-expression,
inclusiveness, and depth;
and to a lesser extent
openness, sustainability
and complementarity.
GIFT
at the OGP Americas
Meeting, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, November 20-22
Within the framework of
the Open Government
Partnership Americas
Regional Meeting, the
Global Initiative for
Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) is
organizing four activities
of two types (see program
of activities here (español
acá)).
During Monday, November
20, in a one-day workshop,
we will have the
opportunity to discuss in
a small, more technical
group, topics related to
our agenda. On Tuesday,
November 21 and Wednesday,
November 22, the
discussion will be open to
a wider public that will
be participating in the
OGP days.
On Monday, November
20, we will seek to offer
a space for technical
assistance through
peer-to-peer learning in
the areas of budget
information communication,
in particular, the
construction, maintenance
and promotion of budget
transparency portals and
open data with a focus on
the user of that
information and the
efforts in matters of
public participation in
fiscal and
budgetary policy. The
workshop will count with
the participation of GIFT
members and partners,
authorities in charge of
the fiscal transparency
agenda, in Argentina,
Chile, El Salvador,
Mexico, the Dominican
Republic and Uruguay; the
International Federation
of Accountants (IFAC), as
well as representatives of
the winners of the GIFT
Award for Public
Participation in Fiscal
Policies.
On November 21
(15:40-16:50) at the OGP
Meeting, we will have a GIFT
session on fiscal
transparency (Fiscal
Openness Working Group-
see the event’s agenda: http://sched.co/CdGh) in
which we will deal with
our issues, but this time
in a very executive way,
to start a dialogue with
more participants of the
OGP meeting. On the same
day, November 21, at 17:00
we will hold the present
the GIFT
Award for
Public Participation in
Fiscal Policy, where the
Municipality of Cascais,
Portugal, the State Audit
Office of Georgia
and Fundar, Center for
Analysis and Research have
been awarded. Finally,
on Wednesday, November 22
from 10:20 to 11:30, GIFT
will have asession
panel on fiscal
transparency with the
presence of
senior representatives of
the governments of
Argentina and Uruguay. Stay
tuned!
