Ten
countries (and one city)
discuss fiscal
transparency commitments
in their OGP’s National
Action Plans in a Fiscal
Openness Working Group
workshop in Washington DC
On June 20-21, GIFT/
Fiscal Openness Working
Group gathered in Washington
DC high-level
representatives of
ministries of finance and of
civil society organizations
from ten countries and one
city from around the world
(Georgia, Guatemala,
Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova,
Mongolia, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, South Africa,
Uruguay and the City of
Buenos Aires). Participants
were invited to engage in
an in-depth conversation
about ambitious fiscal
transparency commitments in
their Open Government
Partnership National Action
Plans. The conversation also
sought to identify areas of
collaboration and exchange
among peers, where
GIFT/Fiscal Openness Working
Group could offer further
and more-up-stream support
and technical assistance to
country authorities in the
development and detailed
design of fiscal
transparency commitments in
their National Action Plans.
Moreover, the workshop was
also a space to reflect on
the opportunity to adopting
and implementing joint
fiscal transparency
commitments to include in
participant countries’ next
Action Plans.
The conversation was
framed with a reflection
by Florencio “Butch” Abad,
Secretary of the Department
of Budget & Management,
Republic of the Philippines,
a founding GIFT lead
steward, on the experience
of the Philippines in
advancing fiscal
transparency and public
participation. A central
point was raised around the
issue of sustainability of
fiscal transparency reforms
and the key aspect of
engaging the public. The
meeting was also attended by
Sanjay Pradhan, CEO, Open
Government Partnership;
Warren Krafchik,
International Budget
Transparency; and David
Mader, Controller of the
Office of Management and
Budget, USA; as well as by
representatives of the World
Bank, Global Integrity,
Emerging Markets Investors
Alliance, and MITRE.
There were three
break-out sessions to
discuss the following
issues: the use of
information technologies for
reaching out to users and
ways to engage the public in
the budget process and
fiscal policies.
(disclosure, usability and
communication issues); open
budgets and how to link
fiscal transparency with
transaction disclosure
(contracts) and eventually
with service delivery; and
national government fiscal
transparency efforts and the
roles of legislatures and
local governments, in
engaging the public. Inputs
emerged from these
conversations will help
shape GIFT’s collaboration
agenda for the upcoming
months to strengthen the
adoption and implementation
of ambitious fiscal
transparency commitments.
Insights
at GIFT with
Florencio “Butch”
Abad, Secretary of the
Department of Budget
&
Management, Republic
of the Philippines, a
founding GIFT lead
steward
Why do governments need
fiscal transparency? bit.ly/293YGeh
GIFT
in Montevideo: the OGP
Americas Regional and
technical assistance to
Uruguay’s Office for
Planning and Budget
(OPP)
The FOWG held a session
at OGP’s Americas Regional
Summit, on June 1, with
representatives from the
agency in charge of
planning and budget
performance evaluation in
Uruguay (OPP),
ICEFI-Guatemala (GIFT
Steward), and a
representative from the
city of Buenos Aires, who
talked about their OGP
plans on fiscal
transparency. Materials
used may be consulted here.
Additionally, GIFT’s
coordination team met for
a full day with the
Uruguay OPP in charge of
was to explore how GIFT
could support efforts to
develop a fiscal
transparency portal. OPP’s
vision and steps taken so
far were presented and
recommendations discussed.
GIFT offered to present
the experience of other
countries with similar
portals, as well as assist
in the design process.
GIFT
in Asuncion: the Open
Parliament Conference
and technical assistance
to Paraguay’s Secretary
for Social and Economic
Development (STP)
As part of the
collaboration between
OGP-Fiscal Openness
Working Group and the Open
Parliament Working Group,
GIFT participated in the
Parl-Americas conference
on accountability in the
legislatives branch in the
Americas, on May 27.
Further collaboration with
that working group is
being explored, in
particular on training
members of parliament on
budget analysis.
While in Asunción, GIFT
Director met with Minister
José Molina, Viceminister
Jorge Galeano, and their
team at the STP in order
to identify the technical
support that GIFT can
provide the public
presentation of their
citizen control panel.
Steps taken so far were
presented and
recommendations discussed.
GIFT and STP agreed to
link the STP with peers at
the Ministry of Finance
(SHCP) in Mexico for
assistance in technology
and in the creation of
indicators.
The
Fiscal Openness Working
Group at the OGP African
Regional Meeting, South
Africa
The workshop
brought together
representatives from the
ministries of finance of
four African countries to
share their experiences,
challenges and lessons
learned on fiscal
transparency. South Africa’s
Budget Office of the
National Treasury, in
coordination with the IBP
Cape Town office, generously
shared their experience on
working together on
improving budget
transparency, and in
particular in building a
fiscal transparency portal
where the supply of
information meets the demand
of potential users.
Participants included
high-level representatives
from the ministries of
finance of South Africa
(GIFT Steward), Kenya,
Liberia, and Egypt.
Participating organizations
included the International
Budget Partnership (GIFT
Steward), Afro-Leadership
(Cameroon), the
Collaborative Africa Budget
Reform Initiative, Financial
Accountability and
Transparency-Ghana, Global
Integrity (GIFT Steward),
Public Service
Accountability Monitor,
Alternative Information and
Development Centre, the
World Bank (GIFT Steward),
and Open Contracting
Partnership. These
organizations also
participated in the OGP
African Regional Meeting
(May 4-6), where a FOWG
session was organized.
Meeting materials may be
consulted here.
GIFT’s
first independent
evaluation
GIFT Evaluation Committee
(Nicola Smithers, Katarina
Ott, Janet Abuel, Ruth
Levine and Warren Krafchik),
with the support of the GIFT
Director, selected an
experienced and renowned
firm, Swedish Development
Advisors (SDA), to undertake
the independent evaluation
of the network. Five high
quality bidders responded to
the open bid. The Evaluation
Committee assessed them with
respect to their skills and
competencies, using the
criteria of the terms of
reference, particularly with
respect to previous
evaluations, fiscal
knowledge and the value for
money of the proposal.
Mexico’s
Ministry of Finance
(Secretaría de Hacienda y
Crédito Público) has
partnered with the National
Autonomous University of
Mexico (Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México) to offer
an online Diploma
Course on Results-based
Budget
This is the first time
that the course will be open
for all public. The course
is in Spanish and you can
read about it and register here.
