Local Government Transparency Research Articles

Participatory Budgeting and Fiscal Transparency of Local Governments : Moderating Effect of Political Competition

The goal of allowing citizens to participate in local government’s decision-making process is to enhance fiscal transparency and accountability. Under the accrual-based accounting system, however, mayors of local governments have substantial discretion in estimating accounting numbers, as well as political incentives to manage performance in order to appease voters. Accordingly, such participation may fail to achieve its intended objective. Utilizing a unique dataset of 220 Korean local governments’ accrual-based financial statements for 2015-2018, we examine the effect of citizens’ participation in the budgeting process on financial reporting quality and how the effect varies with political competition in local municipalities. We first do not find any significant association between the level of participatory budgeting institutions and financial reporting quality measured by the allowances for uncollectible taxes. This finding is consistent with the countervailing effects involved in the participatory budgeting system (i.e., citizens’ enhanced access to accounting information versus mayors’ opportunistic incentives). However, we find that this relation hinges on the level of municipal political competition, captured by the gap in votes obtained by the incumbent mayor and the second-place candidate in the election. The relation becomes significantly positive when political competition is weaker. This evidence implies that mayors’ political incentives and concerns about re-election dominate the monitoring role of citizen councilors, consequently reducing fiscal transparency. Overall, our results suggest that political competition dampens the positive effect of participatory budgeting on the financial reporting quality of local governments.

The Effect of Implementation of the Regional Government Information System (SIPD) on Regional Financial Transparency in Local Governments

The level of quality of regional financial planning is highly dependent on the availability of accurate and complete data and information. Changes in realizing the quality of regional financial planning and transparency have been made by the government. The Local Government Information System (SIPD) is the government's effort in the process of supervision and transparency to the public. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of SIPD implementation on regional financial transparency in the Batu City government. The population of this study is the Regional Apparatus Organization (OPD) in the form of an Agency / Office / Office. Based on the results of purposive sampling, the number of samples obtained was 20 OPDs. The data used is primary data. The analysis technique uses the PLS program. The results of this study indicate that SIPD has a very significant effect on regional financial transparency in the Batu City government. The better the quality of SIPD, showing good regional financial transparency to the public.

GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY AS UKRAINIAN TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES’ ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FACTOR

The present paper substantiates the government transparency issue's importance as a fundamental principle of management and exercise of power on the local level. It must become a dominant one for Ukrainian urban territorial communities’ socio-economic development regulation under the condition of further steps implementation aimed at strengthening administrative and financial decentralization processes.We elucidate specific characteristics of government transparency measuring global practice, in particular, by applying a methodological approach to the city transparency index calculation, which has been conducted since the end of the 20th century by the NGO "Transparency International".We formulated and tested hypotheses about the relationship presence between government transparency level, income from the payment of personal income tax and local tax by the population, as well as the number of people who voted for public budget projects. We chose Ukrainian cities with different ranking positions by the government transparency level to conduct a measurement.The study proved that the local government transparency level is an important factor in Ukraine’s urban territorial communities’ socio and economic development. We defined that cities’ industrial specialization and their economic diversification level do not influence significantly the correlation density between government transparency level and local budgets' revenues. Additionally, most cities, regardless of their size, are characterized by a high correlation between indicators of transparency and the public activity of residents. Also, we observed a tendency for citizens’ activity to rise in the most investigated communities.The obtained results demonstrated the need to choose a longer time lag to test the proposed hypotheses. Nevertheless, the proven hypotheses made it possible to identify problems in ensuring the transparency of territorial communities’ authorities and to formulate proposals for improving public administration efficiency.

Transparency in Local Government in Vietnam

While it is only one of the features of good local governance, the transparency of local government promotes citizen participation, enhances accountability, enforces the rule of law, social justice association and control corruption. Therefore, institutional reform to enhance the transparency of local government is one of the important issues that Vietnam has attached great importance to in recent years. Based on a theoretical framework and data from the Provincial Public Administration and Governance Performance Index (PAPI), this paper analyzes the transparency of local government in Vietnam from 2011 to present. Research results show that although the transparency of local government in Vietnam has improved, it still does not meet the requirements. Although the construction and improvement of legal institutions to improve the transparency of local governments has been highly valued, the effectiveness of the implementation of legal institutions in this area is still not high. Local government transparency is tied to citizen participation and government accountability, but not to other aspects, such as public administrative procedures, quality of public services and control corruption.

DEVELOPMENT OF E-GOVERNMENT UNDER CONDITIONS OF DIGITALIZATION

The article analyzes the scientific positions on the development of e-government in the context of digitalization. It is argued that e-government is an important factor in the activities of the modern state and increasingly absorbs into people's lives. Based on the analysis of theoretical approaches to understanding the concept of "e-government", it is determined that e-government is a form of public administration that promotes openness, efficiency and transparency of both public authorities and local governments through the use of information telecommunication technologies aimed at meeting the needs of citizens. Attention is paid to the essence of digitalization as a driving force of innovation management. It is concluded that e-government in digitalization provides an opportunity to change approaches to the nature of public authorities, make their activities more transparent and public, and proposed a number of measures to develop e-government in digitalization.

Under Construction: Local Government Transparency in a New Democracy

The paper argues that understanding the apparent failure of new democracies in establishing transparency as a norm requires a look at how the meaning of transparency is constructed. The argument is illustrated by analysing how local government transparency is shaped in a multi-actor process, under the influence of international policy discourse and domestic factors. Directed qualitative analysis (N = 144) was applied on documents issued by the central government, local governments and third sector organisations. The aspects of this process – sometimes not so positive effects of external pressure, the emphasis on standardisation, and the limited policy capacity of all actors – are identified as relevant to the establishment of transparency as a norm.

Gender (dis)balance in local government: how does it affect budget transparency?

Balanced gender representation in local political life has been a subject of increasing interest to researchers. This paper, based on a unique database, analyses the representation of women in local representative and executive bodies and its impact on budget transparency (BT) in Croatian local governments. The panel analysis shows that a greater representation of women in local councils has a positive effect on the level of local government digital budgetary reporting. This is in line with gender literature settings and theories that explain BT, suggesting that the greater representation of women helps reduce information asymmetry, increase transparency, and promote government legitimacy. We do not find significant results in regard to women’s representation in local executive functions. A particularly indicative policy implication suggests the aim of increasing the gender balance in local political spheres, especially when deciding on good governance practices and fiscal disclosure requirements.

Selected financial and governance factors influencing the transparency of council decisions: The case of city councils in Victoria, Australia

Research reveals that many local governments across the world do not demonstrate transparency by inviting local citizens in their decision-making activities. This research aims to explore the financial and governance factors that may influence municipalities/councils to make closed-door meetings. Based on the Critical Social and Critical Urban theories this research has hypothesized three models, which have been tested with empirical data collected from 79 local councils/municipalities in Victoria, Australia. The analysis reveals that financial factors such as surplus-income and cash equivalent significantly influence municipalities to conduct closed-door meetings. On the other hand, governance factors such as citizen-satisfactions have no significant relationship with closed-door meetings. These findings have implications for policy-makers and public managers to rethink and redesign the factors that influence on local government transparency.

How does China’s new budget law affect the pricing of local government bonds?

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of China’s New Budget Law implementation on the pricing of Local Government Bonds (LGBs). We collect 5,442 province-year LGBs observations from 2009 to 2019 and estimate the Simultaneous Equation Models that consider the endogeneity of fiscal transparency. Our results show that the enforcement of the New Budget Law unexpectedly leads to a rise in the interest rates of LGBs overall while enhancing the fiscal transparency of local governments. The findings in this paper suggest that the marketization level of LGBs’ pricing in China needs to be further improved.

E-GOVERNANCE IN THE MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

The article reveals the features of the process of development of information and communication technologies (ICT), and with them e-government, which in turn affects the state-building processes. ICTs are becoming more accessible to increase simplicity and efficiency in many areas of life. ICT is particularly promising in the field of governance and public participation. Proponents of open and e-government believe that in the digital age, governments can use information to reduce corruption and increase government transparency, accountability, efficiency, and citizen participation. Proponents of human rights argue that the successful use of ICT in governance requires access to information, education and the ability to share information with citizens. One of the main goals of e-government is to increase the level of citizen involvement in state activities and government decision-making. This goal is achieved through openness and transparency of public authorities and local governments. Citizens' trust and support of the government play a key role in the formation and successful support of a democratic state. The world revolution in information and communication technologies is currently underway. The Internet, the personal computer and the mobile phone are radically changing our lives – influencing how we work, learn and interact. Governments around the world recognize the value of e-government. With the right design and implementation, e-government can increase the efficiency of public services, simplify government regulation, strengthen public participation and trust in government, and save money for citizens, businesses and government itself. Not surprisingly, politicians and leaders seek to introduce e-government in countries around the world – from the most developed to the least developed. The use of information technology by public authorities (such as global networks, the Internet and mobile computers), which have the ability to transform relationships with citizens, businesses and other branches of government. These technologies can serve a variety of purposes: better delivery of public services to citizens, better interaction with business and industry, empowering citizens through access to information, or better governance. Its benefits can be reduced corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, increased revenue, and / or reduced costs.

Glocal FOI: Local Government Transparency Across the World

An increasing number of studies are focusing on access to government information across different nations, which is sorely needed to figure out what is the most effective information ecosystem for the average citizen. The studies in this issue of the journal do just that, examining transparency at the subnational levels in the United Kingdom and Argentina.

Does political ideology act as a moderator of transparency drivers? An empirical analysis of active information disclosure in local governments

ABSTRACT This article provides an analysis of the moderating role played by political ideology in transparency, thereby contributing to the growing body of literature on the topic of local government transparency. Although previous research has indicated that transparency in local governments depends on a variety of political factors, the influence of political ideology on transparency shows some inconsistencies. This paper argues that, among various political issues that affect the disclosure of information, political ideology acts as a moderator of active information disclosure. The empirical analysis is based on unbalanced panel data from 308 Portuguese municipalities. The results of this study confirm that political ideology moderates the relationship between political factors and active information disclosure. Specifically, they indicate that political ideology plays an important role in improving levels of transparency in municipalities governed by left-wing politicians.

The impact of social media on local government transparency and citizen engagement: The case of Tirana Municipality

The impact of social media on local government transparency and citizen engagement: The case of Tirana Municipality

Participation, transparency and trust in local governance in transitional countries: the case of Vietnam

ABSTRACT The cynicism about government has induced administration reforms in both developed and transitional countries. However, the reform outcomes are not similar across countries and depend on the administrative context. In this paper, we employ the cultural-based administration approach to investigate the role of trust in citizen participation and the linking between participation and transparency in Vietnam. Using aggregated data at the district level from the Public Administration Performance Index in Vietnam in 2018–19 and considering the two-way association issue, we find that transparency is not always indicative of participation and trust is shown to be an important determinant of public participation. Furthermore, in addition to normative factors such as education levels and the proportion of rural citizens, trust plays a significant role in explaining the inverse relationship between participation and transparency. Our results contribute one more empirical evidence to the scarce literature that embeds the administration culture analysing administrative reform outcomes in transitional countries.

Evaluating Inclusive Transparency in Spanish Local Government

This article defines and analyzes a new concept: inclusive transparency. Specifically, it conducts a comparative study of transparency portals in twenty-five Spanish local councils, all of which occupy prime positions in Transparency International’s Index of Municipalities. The evaluation aims to establish their degree of compliance with Spanish and European regulations, ensuring website accessibility for people with disabilities. To this end, an evaluation model (composed of 4 criteria, 11 variables and 45 indicators) has been generated, taking inspiration from electronic accessibility guidelines, which have been applied using automatic techniques and transparency portal revision manuals. The results of the research allow verification of a positive correlation between the levels of active and inclusive transparency. In other words, whether in terms of active advertising benchmark municipalities design and manage their portals in ways which also guarantee, alongside all other citizens, the right of access for people with limited capacities (hearing, visual, mobile and cognitive) thereby enahancing the exercise of their political citizenship and their social integration.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND WEBSITE BASED FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

It is important to manifest financial transparency of local government as a means of monitoring the misuse of public resources and preventing cases of corruption. One of the local governments that succeeded in achieving the best transparency in Indonesia is Central Java. Based on 2019 Central Java Local Government financial data, this research is aimed to find evidence whether there are relationships between the characteristics of local government and financial transparency of local government. The evidence is obtained through the results of statistical analysis, namely multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this research show that the size of local government, the tenure of regional heads, the structure of regional revenues, and regional financial independence have a positive relationship to the financial transparency of local government.

Determinants of public transparency: A study in Brazilian local governments

IMPACT This article demonstrates that the transparency of Brazilian local governments, with regard to the provision of information to citizens, is related to environmental, institutional and political factors. It explores how transparency can be used by public managers to achieve their goals, whether for the public good or their private gain. It demonstrates how transparency can have both positive and negative aspects effects, which is why it is important to understand the theoretical and empirical conclusions of this research and its impact on the relationship between society and public administration.

E-GOVERNMENT AS A METHOD FOR LEGAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CIVIL SOCIETY AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

E-government is a form of public administration which promotes efficiency, openness and transparency of public authorities and local governments with the use of information and telecommunications technologies to form a new type of state focused on meeting the needs of citizens. E-government is studied as a way, a form, the concept, system and mechanism of cooperation between the state (public administration) and public sectors (civil society). As a method for legal communication between civil society and public administration, e-government plays the role of a means of public self-government, which involves interactivity and continuity of interaction between citizens and the state, the presence of public control over the activities of public authorities. This article is dedicated to reveal the role of e-government for realizing the goals of legal communication between its participants in public life. However, further in-depth analysis requires understanding the role of e-government as a means of legal communication, changing the focus and direction of its development in the digital age, as well as exploring promising areas of legal regulation of virtual legal relations between public authorities and civil society. The implementation of e-government in Ukraine should be provided on a qualitatively new level to develop efficient legal communication between government and society as a whole, strengthen confidence in the state and its policies, improve cooperation between public authorities and local governments, business, citizens and civil servants. The authors of this article adhered to its purpose, which is to analyze the understanding of the role of e-government as a means of legal communication, changing the focus and direction of its development in the digital age, and exploring promising areas of legal regulation of virtual legal relations between government and civil society.

Transparency and efficient management in local governments

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if municipalities that manage their services more efficiently are more transparent. Using a sample of Spanish municipalities for 2019, we find that more efficient municipalities do indeed put a greater emphasis on the dissemination of the information on most of the issues related to their management. Moreover, our results show that the richest municipalities and the most indebted are also willing to disclose more information. Furthermore, it seems that municipalities in which the government has a majority, is right-wing and/or whose mayor is a woman disclose more information. Finally, our findings show that municipalities with lower voter turnout tend to be more transparent.

Tekanan Eksternal, Faktor Politik, Pengendalian Internal Dan Gaya Kepemimpinan Dalam Meningkatkan Transparansi Pelaporan Keuangan Pemerintah Daerah

This study aims to test and prove whether external pressures, political factors, internal control and leadership styles have an influence on financial reporting of local government transparency. This research was conducted in OPD Siak district. The total population was 33 DPOs, all DPOs were sampled. The data used are primary data with a questionnaire as an instrument. Purposive sampling as a sampling method. The number of samples is 99 respondents. Respondents in this study were selected with several criteria, namely: (1) echelon II, III, IV officials who work in the Siak Regency government, (2) have a minimum work experience of 1 year, (3) financial employees who have worked for at least 1 year , because it is considered that they have experience and already know the developments in the OPD in Siak Regency. Multiple linear regression as a data analysis technique and assisted by SPSS ver.20.0 for windows. The results prove that the political factors, internal control and leadership style variables have a positive effect on financial reporting transparency. The external pressure variable has a negative effect on financial reporting transparency. The results of this study are useful for developing insights and providing in-depth understanding relating to financial reporting transparency influenced by external pressures, political factors, internal control, and leadership styles. It is also hoped that it can become a reference material for comparison information for other studies that wish to discuss this issue, and it is hoped that it will become an alternative for the government in evaluating the transparency of financial reporting, especially local governments in Siak Regency.