Budget transparency innovation in the Czech local government

Lucie Sedmihradská

doi:10.2478/cejpp-2019-0002

Abstract

Abstract Budget transparency innovations bring new extent and forms of transparency. The aim of the article is to explore the diffusion of budget explorers, that is, a budget transparency innovation extremely popular in the Czech Republic, and to evaluate their impact on voluntary budget information disclosed. Careful mapping of the diffusion using a survey of budget explores in 72 former Czech district towns and media analysis shows that the key success factor was its convenience for politicians, as it is attractive, easy to implement and up-to-date demonstration of their transparency. Budget explorers are nowadays a standard extension to accounting software, and their usage is evaluated in several government transparency competitions. The major benefit of the budget explorers is that they made for the first time publicly available detailed public financial information, changed the standard of best practice and drew some public attention. At the same time, they, unfortunately, narrowed the scope of the budget transparency debate by omitting the importance of the draft budget and introduction of performance measurement.

Highlights

Fast development of information and communication technologies (ICT) enabled extent and forms of transparency that were impossible in the pre-computer age (Bannister and Connolly, 2011)
Changes in budget transparency in the past decade are tremendous. It is a result of the quick development of ICT and simultaneously growing expectations about its potential or possibilities regarding transparency in the future
Budget explorers as a specific innovation played a crucial role in budget transparency development in the Czech Republic in the past 9 years

Summary

Introduction

Fast development of information and communication technologies (ICT) enabled extent and forms of transparency that were impossible in the pre-computer age (Bannister and Connolly, 2011). It significantly lowered the costs of collecting, distributing and accessing government information (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes, 2010). Transparency, in general, means citizens’ access to government information and information about government and facilitating citizens understanding of government functioning (Bannister and Connolly, 2011), and it serves to keep government honest (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes, 2010). Budget transparency enables voters to understand better the budget and increases politicians’ commitment to be fiscally responsible (Benito and Bastida, 2009)

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Conclusion