Are the government officials good stewards of public funds?
VOL 18 NO -108 REGD NO DA 1589 | Dhaka, Saturday February 26 2011
Are the government officials good stewards of public funds?
The parliament should play an active role in ensuring the availability and credibility of fiscal information. There should be clear procedure for budget execution, monitoring, and reporting. The accounting system should provide a reliable basis for tracking revenues, commitments, payments, arrears, liabilities, and assets, writes M S Siddiqui
A budget is a government's plan on the use of public resources to meet the citizens' needs. Budget Transparency (BT) means that ordinary citizens can access information about how public resources are allocated and used. Budget Transparency is defined as the full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner. "BT is a precondition for public participation in budget processes. The combination of BT and public participation in budget processes has the potential to combat corruption, foster public accountability of government agencies and contribute to judicious use of public funds" (OECD, 2002).
BT enables citizens to assess whether the government officials are good stewards of public funds. BT is a fundamental precondition for accountability and public participation in governance processes. Representatives of civil society and social organizations in our country have long been demanding ofthe government to initiate budget formulation from the district level to make the national budget a democratic and pro-poor one. The government has also promised to decentralize the authority to district level but has yet to initiate the process.
The Washington-based Open Budget Initiative is a global watchdog of budgets of different countries of the world. The Open Budget Index (OBI), prepared with the help of local partners, provides ratings of the openness of budget materials of different countries. The Department of Development Studies of the University of
Are the government officials good stewards of public funds?
The parliament should play an active role in ensuring the availability and credibility of fiscal information. There should be clear procedure for budget execution, monitoring, and reporting. The accounting system should provide a reliable basis for tracking revenues, commitments, payments, arrears, liabilities, and assets, writes M S Siddiqui
A budget is a government's plan on the use of public resources to meet the citizens' needs. Budget Transparency (BT) means that ordinary citizens can access information about how public resources are allocated and used. Budget Transparency is defined as the full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner. "BT is a precondition for public participation in budget processes. The combination of BT and public participation in budget processes has the potential to combat corruption, foster public accountability of government agencies and contribute to judicious use of public funds" (OECD, 2002).
BT enables citizens to assess whether the government officials are good stewards of public funds. BT is a fundamental precondition for accountability and public participation in governance processes. Representatives of civil society and social organizations in our country have long been demanding ofthe government to initiate budget formulation from the district level to make the national budget a democratic and pro-poor one. The government has also promised to decentralize the authority to district level but has yet to initiate the process.
The Washington-based Open Budget Initiative is a global watchdog of budgets of different countries of the world. The Open Budget Index (OBI), prepared with the help of local partners, provides ratings of the openness of budget materials of different countries. The Department of Development Studies of the University of