Welcome Remarks from the IBP
Mr. Vivek Ramkumar
International Advocacy and OBI Director, IBP
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Welcome Remarks
from the GIFT
Mr. Juan Pablo Guerrero
Network Director, GIFT
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Keynote Address from the
DBM Philippines
Mr. Florencio Abad
Secretary, DBM
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SESSION 1:
Open Government Partnership and the FOWG:
Introduction and Overview
of Progress
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Fiscal Openness Working Group
Open Government Parternship
Asia Pacfic Workshop - September 2015
Juan Pablo Guerrero
guerrero@fiscaltransparency.net
#FiscalTransparency
Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
Overview
1 Objectives of the workshop
1 Open Government Partnership
1 Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency
2 What fiscal transparency commitments did countries make in their
OGP National Action Plans?
3 Some notable commitments and practices
4 What steps to increase fiscal transparency should countries
include in their NAP?
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
The main objectives of the workshop are:
 Provide a platform for peer-to-peer exchange & learning on
the process to advance fiscal transparency
 Learn about an incredible source of knowledge & evidence
findings: Open Budget Survey 2015
 Offer efficient & coordinated access to international good
practices, tools, norms, assessments, and technical expertise
on fiscal transparency & public participation
 Motivate additional governments to become champions of
fiscal transparency & participation
 Define a GIFT regional work plan for the Asia Pacific Area
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
Open Government Partnership (2011-15)
 Voluntary, multi-stakeholder international initiative
 Aims to secure concrete commitments on promoting transparency,
empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies
to strengthen governance
 65 countries today (8 in 2011): governments & civil society work
together to develop & implement open government reforms,
supported by an international forum for dialogue & sharing ideas &
experience
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
OGP Structure & Conditions
1. OGP Steering Committee 2. Annual Conference 3. Support Unit 4.
Independent Reporting Mechanism
To become member a country must:
1. Endorse OGP declaration; 2. Make concrete commitments as part
of country National Action Plan (beyond current practice); 3. Develop
NAP through a multi-stakeholder process (active engagement of
citizens & civil society); 4. Commit to a self-assessment and
independent reporting on progress; 5. Contribute to open government
in other countries (sharing practices, expertise, technical assistance,
technologies)
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
OGP Eligibility Criteria – 4 key dimensions
 Fiscal transparency: Timely publication of essential budget
documents (budget proposal + Audit report)
 Right to Access to Information: ATI law, RI constitutional provision
or draft initiative under consideration
 Disclosures related to elected public officials: Rules that require
disclosure of income & assets for elected and senior public officials
 Citizen engagement: citizen participation in policymaking &
governance (civil rights & liberties)
 OGP countries in the region: Australia, Indonesia, Mongolia, New
Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
Action Network: Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency
(OGP-Fiscal Openness Working Group)
 Advance and institutionalize significant & sustainable
improvements in fiscal transparency, participation and
accountability in countries around the world, by working on
global norms, incentives, peer-learning, and technical
assistance.
Funding comes from the World Bank, The Hewlett
Foundation & Omidyar Network.
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
GIFT work streams
Flexible framework for a network devoted to action & impact

Global norms on fiscal transparency (FT) & open budget
o High-level principles on FT, public participation (PP) & accountability
(UN General Assembly, 2012) & working on a Convention on FT & PP
o Harmonization of norms & global standards (IMF, OECD, PEFA,
OBI/IBP)
o Principles on public participation in fiscal policies & advance the right
to participate in budget processes

Incentives for FT & finding evidences of impact
o 8 country case studies about public participation
o Think-pieces on incentives for TF
o Impacts of FT: review of evidence
o Transparency on revenues & taxes
o Country FT commitments in OGP (analysis)
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
Streams of work of GIFT (2)
Technical assistance & peer learning
 OGP Fiscal Openness Working Group for enhancing & implementing
commitments
 Support processes for TF in specific countries (TA & peer-to-peer
exchanges)
 Engage countries in principles & standard discussions/making
Technologies & open data
 Use of technologies for information disclosure & proactive dissemination
 Open formats for budget data with BOOST (World Bank-Open
Knowledge)
 Community of practice: discussions, networks, webinars, blogs, videos,
experiences, exchanges…
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
GIFT Lead Stewards
In charge of the executive guidance of the network and working closely to
the Network Director and the Coordination Team
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Fiscal Openness Working Group - OGP
GIFT General Stewards
In charge of the definition of the strategic guidelines and the GIFT
principles & to promote FT in their organizations and within their
institutional environments
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Fiscal Transparency & Public Participation
High Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency,
Participation & Accountability
United Nations General Assembly – Dec. 2012
 Preamble, plus 2 parts:
o Access to Fiscal Information (principles 1-4)
o The Governance of Fiscal Policy (principles 5-10)
 Framed by 2 fundamental rights principles:
o A public right to fiscal information (from UDHR Art. 19)
o A right to participate directly in fiscal policy design and
implementation (from ICCPR Art. 25)
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Fiscal Transparency & Public Participation
I. High Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency
• Access to Fiscal Information
1. Right to seek, receive and impart information on fiscal policies
2. Governments should publish clear and measureable objectives
for aggregate fiscal policy
3. Presentation of high quality financial and non-financial
information on past, present & forecast
4. Governments should communicate the objectives they are
pursuing and the outputs they are producing
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Fiscal Transparency & Public Participation
II. High Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency
• Governance of Fiscal Policy
5. All transactions should have their basis in law
6. Government sector clearly defined, & relationships with private
sector disclosed
7. Roles and responsibilities clearly assigned between the
legislature, the executive & the judiciary
8. No government revenue without the approval of the legislature
5. The Supreme Audit Institution should have statutory
independence & the appropriate resources
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Fiscal Transparency & Public Participation
III. High Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency
•
A new fundamental civil right
10. Citizens should have the right and they, and all non-state actors,
should have effective opportunities to participate directly in
public debate and discussion over the design and
implementation of fiscal policies.
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
What types of FT commitments do OGP countries make?
• Most commitments under H-L Principle 3: High quality financial &
non-financial information on past, present, & forecast fiscal
activities, performance, fiscal risks, & public assets & liabilities….’
Focus is on flows rather than stocks
• Many commitments on public participation (HLP10)
• Few commitments on legislative oversight (HLP8); on macro-fiscal
policy (HLP2); or on a citizen right to fiscal information (HLP1)
• For further details of FT commitments see
http://bit.ly/1Od71s3 or http://bit.ly/1NvfcOx
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
GIFT identified FT commitments within NAPs
• Commitments were coded by GIFT as FT commitments
where they related to any aspect of taxation, borrowing,
spending, investment and management of public resources,
including delivery of public services
• Covers policy design, implementation, review
• Includes: any public participation in fiscal policy
• Excludes: general references to public participation, or RTI,
or open data that do not specifically refer to FT
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Overview of FT commitments in NAPs
• A total of 360 FT commitments identified, in 43 out of the 45 NAPs
for which IRM reports published = 38% of all commitments in these
NAPs
• The definition of a commitment varies widely within and across
NAPs, however, reducing the comparability of data on
commitments
• There is a very wide range in the proportion of fiscal transparency
commitments to total commitments in NAPs, from 0% (Chile,
Romania) to 100% (Guatemala); the average share is 34%
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries, & the
Implementation of OGP Commitments:
An Analysis
Implementation of FT commitments
Figure 3
Total Fiscal Transparency Commitments by Level of Completion
12%
7%
Completed
Subst Compl
Limited compl
Not started
Unclear and Withdrawn
23%
33%
25%
n = 318
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Notable country FT reforms
• Of those countries with more than 5 FT commitments, notable
progress in implementation of FT commitments was made by:
• Croatia – 12 out of 16 commitments completed or
substantially completed
• Mexico – 12 out of 17
• Brazil – 10 out of 10
• Indonesia – 10 out of 11
• Moldova – 8 out of 14
• The Philippines – 8 out of 16
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Country Implementation of FT by Level of Ambition:
Low Ambition
High
Implementation
Low
Implementation
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Denmark
Italy
Spain
UK
USA
Canada
South Korea
Georgia
Ukraine
Paraguay
South Africa
Estonia
High Ambition
Brazil
Mexico
Albania
Colombia
Jordan
Israel
Sweden
Greece
Macedonia
Slovakia
Czech Rep.
Norway
Armenia
Montenegro
Latvia
Uruguay
Croatia
Indonesia
Moldova
Philippines
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
El Salvador
Honduras
Dominican Rep.
Guatemala
Tanzania
Peru
Kenya
Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Some notable OGP commitments
• GFMIS reforms in the Philippines, Liberia, Honduras, Dominican Rep.
• Commitments to strengthen procurement in many countries, those for
which the IRMs reported reasonable implementation progress include
Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay
• EITI commitments in a number of countries e.g. Indonesia, The
Philippines, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, USA
• The Philippines: commitment to engage citizens in public audits
• Honduras: update and disseminate the PEFA assessment
• Indonesia: publish local services delivery-level budgets in health &
education
• Transparency of external assistance from the donor side, including
conforming with the IATI standard: Canada, Denmark, Spain, Sweden,
UK & USA
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Some innovative commitments
• DR: publish data on public complaints at the level of individual
agencies
• Slovakia: making the NAP a legally binding document (responsible
institutions take actions or explain the lack of action)
• Macedonia: create a portal for citizen feedback on public services
• Mexico: an open & interactive geo-referencing platform allows
citizens to track public resource allocation
• Peru: improve mechanisms for public consultation on budget
preparation, approval, implementation & reporting
• The Philippines: institutionalize social audits; create a People’s
Budget interactive web site
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
What steps to increase FT should countries include in
their (next) NAPs?
• First, OGP members should publish documents already produced
within government:
• 9 countries produce a Pre-Budget Statement but do not publish
it including AR, CL, DR, SV, PE
• 3 countries produce but do not publish in-year budget reports
including Costa Rica
• 7 countries produce but do not publish a mid-year report
• 3 countries and 1 country respectively produce but do not
publish a year-end report and an audit report
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Steps to improve fiscal transparency (2)
• Other reports not currently produced, but which would take relatively effort,
are a Citizens’ Budget (not published in 27 OGP members), and a mid-year
report (not produced in 18 OGP members)
• OGP members that have gone backwards on fiscal transparency in recent
years should give priority to decisively reversing this trend
• Countries should also give early priority to:
• Strengthening legislative oversight
• Strengthening SAI independence and resourcing
• Introducing social auditing
• Consulting the public more during budget preparation
• Opening up legislative committee budget hearings to the public
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
Recommended consultation practices
• Designation of a lead agency responsible for each commitment
• Publication of the names of specific CSOs who are working with
government on each commitment
• Countries need to follow much more closely the OGP process
requirements for public consultation in the design & implementation
of their NAPs
• Engage in a process: go beyond traditional civil society
consultation models towards institutionalising systematic, on-going
& meaningful dialogue with non-government actors and the public
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries
In conclusion
GIFT stands ready to assist countries with the design &
implementation of fiscal transparency initiatives, whether they
are current members of OGP or are non-members.
info@fiscaltransparency.net
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Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries, & the
Implementation of OGP Commitments:
An Analysis
Selected references
Fiscal Transparency in OGP Countries, and the Implementation of OGP Commitments: An Analysis.
GIFT Background Paper for the FOWG Meeting in San Jose, 18 November 2014.
Fiscal Openness Working Group 2014 Work Plan:
www.fiscaltransparency.net/fowg/
GIFT Expanded High Level Principles:
http://www.fiscaltransparency.net/eng/principles.php
OGP By The Numbers: What the IRM Data Tell Us About OGP Results. IRM Technical Paper1,
Joseph Foti.
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Technical%20paper%201_final.p
df
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Engage with us
@FiscalTrans
fiscaltransparency.net
Experiences and challenges on fiscal
transparency and the role of the
international community
Indonesia
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Experiences and challenges on fiscal
transparency and the role of the
international community
Cambodia
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Experiences and challenges on fiscal
transparency and the role of the
international community
Vietnam
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Experiences and challenges on fiscal
transparency and the role of the
international community
India
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Experiences and challenges on fiscal
transparency and the role of the
international community
Sri Lanka
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Open Forum
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End of
Session 1
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