Pinas, pumangalawa sa Indonesia pagdating sa budget transparency sa Southeast Asia

NASUNGKIT  ng Pilipinas ang ‘second highest score’ sa Southeast Asia para sa transparency ng budget documents sa 2021 Open Budget Survey. 

Mula sa kabuuang  120 bansa na kabilang sa survey, pumuwesto ang Pilipinas sa pang-19, na may iskor na 68.

Sa Southeast Asia, ang Pilipinas ay ‘ranked second’ sa Indonesia.

Ang Pilipinas ay naka-iskor ng bahagyang pagbaba  kumpara sa  76 na nakuha nito noong 2019  dahil sa ‘late publication’ ng mid-year review online.

“OBS measures transparency in terms of public access to information on how the central government raises and spends public resources. It assesses the online availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness of 8 key budget documents using 109 equally weighted indicators,” ayon sa ulat.

Ang transparency score na  61 o pataas mula sa 100 ay indikasyon na ang bansa ay “likely publishing enough material to support informed public debate on the budget.”

Inilunsad noong  2006 ng  International Budget Partnership (IBP), ang  Open Budget Survey ay  “world’s only independent, comparative, and fact-based research instrument” para sukatin ang aspeto ng ‘governance and accountability’ sa pamamagitan ng ‘transparency, oversight at public participation.’

Pagdating sa public participation,  naka-iskor ang Pilipinas ng 35 mula sa 100,  itinuturing na  “highest” sa  Southeast Asia at mas mataas sa  global average na 14.

“This category assesses the formal opportunities offered to the public for meaningful participation in the different stages of the budget process. It also examines the practices of the central government’s executive, the legislature, and supreme audit institution using 18 equally weighted indicators, aligned with the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency’s Principles of Public Participation in Fiscal Policies,” ayon pa rin sa ulat.

Welcome naman kay Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman  ang resulta ng OBS.

“We hope to fast-track our initiatives to digitize government processes and transactions through the implementation of the Integrated Financial Management Information System as well as the enactment of the progressive budgeting for better and modernized governance bill or PBBM bill which shall institutionalize the cash budgeting system,” ang wika ni Pangandaman.

“We are also committed to continue working towards an open and participatory government as we chair the Philippine Open Government Partnership steering committee,”  dagdag na pahayag nito sabay sabing pag-aaralan ng  DBM  ang feasibility na isama ang rekomendasyon ng OBS  sa proseso nito.  (Daris Jose)