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We must improve transparency and openness of the budget process

Reflections from the Open Budget Survey 2023
Enhancing the transparency, accessibility, and inclusiveness of the budget process in Bangladesh is a key policy question. Insights from the Open Budget Survey (OBS), conducted by the International Budget Partnership, a non-profit organisation that analyses national budgets, can help address this as it evaluates how openly governments share budget information, encourage public participation to strengthen accountability, and facilitate oversight by institutions such as legislatures and audit offices. The results of the latest OBS were released in 2024, assessing 125 countries. Given Bangladesh’s performance in the latest OBS, there is room for the country to enhance transparency and openness in its budget process.
The transparency section of the OBS measures the public’s access to information on how the government collects and spends its resources, assessing eight critical budget documents. Bangladesh scored 37 out of 100 on transparency, reflecting a modest improvement from its previous score of 30. This score is below the global average score of 45. A transparency score of 61 or above indicates that a country is likely publishing enough material to support informed public debate on the budget.
To further improve, Bangladesh should ensure timely online publication of essential documents, such as the pre-budget statement, in-year reports, and a single, comprehensive year-end report. A pre-budget statement outlines the broad parameters of fiscal policies ahead of the executive’s budget proposal, providing an economic forecast, anticipated revenue, expenditures, and debt levels. In Bangladesh, a pre-budget statement is not published. The pre-budget statement can encourage civil society to get involved in the budget process early and influence policy plans before detailed funding decisions are made.
Timely publication of the year-end report as well as the mid-year report should be considered. The year-end report describes the government’s accounts at the end of the fiscal year. But this report should also adopt an analytical lens by evaluating the progress made towards achieving the budget’s policy goals. This can help serve as evidence for reflection and improvement in the budget formulation to its execution process. The year-end report should consolidate budget data, be more accessible, and be available within a year after the reporting period.
For a half-year quarterly report to qualify as the mid-year review, it should include macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts for the remainder of the year, as well as revised and updated estimates for revenues and expenditures.
On public participation, the Open Budget Survey evaluates formal opportunities for the public to engage with the executive, legislature, and supreme audit institution across the four stages of the budget cycle. In this aspect, Bangladesh scored 11 out of 100. This low score is mainly attributed to the lack of clarity on what has been included from the current practice of pre-budget consultation, which is facilitated by the Finance Division during the budget formulation stage. To improve public participation, the Finance Division should focus on expanding opportunities for any civil society group or individual to participate during budget planning. The Finance Division should also proactively involve vulnerable and marginalised communities, either directly or through organisations that represent them.
The OBS evaluates the roles of legislatures and supreme audit institutions (SAIs) in the budget process, assessing the level of oversight they provide. Each country receives a score from 0 to 100, based on 18 equally weighted indicators. The legislature and supreme audit institution in Bangladesh, together, provide weak oversight during the budget process, with a composite oversight score of 37 (out of 100).
The National Parliament of Bangladesh, also known as Jatiya Sangsad, provides limited oversight during the planning stage of the budget cycle and weak oversight during the implementation stage. To improve oversight, it is important to prioritise the following: i) the budget proposal should be submitted to legislators at least two months before the start of the budget year; ii) legislative committees should examine the budget proposal and publish reports with their analysis online; and iii) a legislative committee should examine in-year budget implementation and publish reports with their findings online.
In practice, it is important to ensure that the legislature is consulted before the executive shifts funds specified in the enacted budget between administrative units, spends any unanticipated revenue, or reduces spending due to revenue shortfalls during the budget year.
To strengthen independence and improve audit oversight by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in the country, it is imperative to ensure that audit processes are reviewed by an independent agency.
If implemented, the above-mentioned improvements will not only align Bangladesh with global standards of fiscal openness, but also foster greater accountability, ensuring that public funds are managed effectively to serve the country’s needs.
Dr M Abu Eusuf is professor at the Department of Development Studies and director at the Centre on Budget and Policy in the University of Dhaka. He is also the executive director of Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), and country researcher for the International Budget Partnership in Bangladesh. He can be reached at eusuf101@gmail.com.
Md Rabiul Islam Rabi is an economist. He can be reached at eco.rabi@gmail.com.