An Assessment of the Openness and Transparency of Local Budgets in Belarus

Abstract

International experience shows that public participation in the budgetary process and openness in the public sector are necessary conditions for a proper economic strategy of the state. Financial openness, in the broadest sense, today represents an important feature of proper fiscal and monetary policy. In a narrow sense, it is more often associated with the openness of the budget process, especially at the local level. Financial openness contributes to the efficient collection and distribution of public resources. It increases the responsibility of governments, strengthens the trust of citizens, and eliminates opportunities for corruption. This paper attempts to develop and test a compact methodology for the operational analysis of online information openness and transparency of the budgetary process at the local level. The developed methodology involves the use of two criteria: (1) the level of transparency of local budget, and (2) an assessment of the efforts by authority in ensuring the transparency of local budgets. The basis of the methodology is expert assessments of the informational significance of particular parts of websites of local authorities in issues of local finance and budgeting. Based on expert assessments of the significance and actual availability of these information elements, we evaluate an integrated assessment of the information content of local authoritiy sites in 2020. We interpret the resulting assessment of the information content of the site with the local budget and finances data as the online openness and transparency of local budgets (Online Local Budget Index of Transparency, OLBIT). Besides, we evaluate what factors (financial, geographical and demographic) affect the transparency level measured by the OLBIT.