The State of Budget Transparency Worldwide

We start this issue with an overview from Vivek Ramkumar on the state of global budget transparency as revealed by the International Budget Partnership’s second survey. The findings are generally said to be ‘deplorable’ across the 85 countries surveyed. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the weakest groups of performers are low-income countries that are heavily dependent on donor funding. It might have been expected that the World Bank, IMF and other donors could have wielded their influence in these countries and ensured greater openness. Other countries which are particularly poor in terms of budget transparency are those which are heavily dependent on exports of oil and gas, and countries that have weak democracies. However, things are improving and many countries have improved over the two years since the last survey.

The State of Budget Transparency Worldwide

Volume 2 of International Journal on Governmental Financial Management Available

Volume 2 in now available. Articles in the Journal include:

• The State of Budget Transparency Worldwide, Vivek Ramkumar
• International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board Review the Cash Basis IPSAS: An Opportunity to Influence Developments, Paul Sutcliffe
• The Cash Basis IPSAS – An Alternative View, Michael Parry and Andy Wynne
• Using Periodic Audits to Prevent Catastrophic Project Failure, Paul Dorsey
• Framework for Evaluating Internal Controls over Financial Reporting in Sovereign Governments, Jawahar Thakur and Nalin Kumar Srivastava
• Short-Comings of Government Financial Management: A Generational Accounting Critique, Liyan Tang and Paul J M Klumpes
• Investigating the Governmental Accounting Reform of Greek National Health System: Some Preliminary Evidence, Filippos Stamatiadis
• Nigeria’s Economic Competitiveness in the African Context, John C Anyanwu and Andrew E O Erhijakpor
• Literature Review

2009 Vol 2 IJGFM