By Ron Corben
Voice of America
Bangkok
08 February 2009
A new survey indicates several South East Asian countries rank poorly in providing accessible and transparent information on their national budgets, raising fears of corruption in spending programs. Survey by the Washington-based International Budget Partnership says for many countries minor steps could be taken to improve transparency and accountability.
According to the Washington-based International Budget Partnership, most countries fall short in providing readily available information on budgets and spending programs.
Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, says access to budget documents is a major challenge. The IBP says in many countries the public is simply shut out from the budget formation process.
"The report with you right now gives a very sad story. About 80 per cent of the governments in 85 countries of the world are not transparent about their budget and financial processes," said Mangahas. "The battle that we have really as journalists and development advocates is that that means misuse, abuse, and corruption of public funds continue in small and large measures in many countries."
The International Budget Partnership works with civil organizations in developing countries to analyze, monitor and influence the government budget process. The organization says the aim is to ensure budgets respond to the needs of the poor as well as provide more transparency and accountability.
At the top of the Open Budget Index were the United Kingdom, South Africa, France, New Zealand and United States in providing extensive information in the budget process.
Among the lowest ranking were Angola, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In South East Asia, Vietnam and Cambodia received low rankings, placing among the group of countries that provide little or no information on national budgets.
"The Royal Government of Cambodia provides scant information to the public in terms of central government budget and financial activity during the fiscal year," said Kim Song Chea, of the non-government organization, Forum on Cambodia.
Song Chea says Cambodia faces a number of challenges. He says the country lacks funds to boost the auditing process and has few means to press the government to enact freedom of information laws.
Song Chea says foreign donors, key contributors to Cambodia's development budget, need to press the government on issues of accountability.
According to the report, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand also fell short in transparency and information on national budgets. Only Indonesia showed signs of progress towards reform over recent years.
Khairiah Makhtaruddin, a researcher with the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute in Kuala Lumpur, says the Malaysian government offers little chance for public participation in the budget process.
She says the government should improve the parliamentary review processes to raise levels of transparency.
Only Indonesia ranked better than 50 per cent in providing "significant information" to the public in its budget documents, with an improvement following reforms by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance at the national level.
The IBP called on governments to take urgent action to improve budget transparency and accountability, calling on international donors to add their weight along with civil society to publicize and demand explanations from governments to provide more information on spending programs.
The Washington-based organization recommended governments provide more timely information on the Internet and improve public accessibility to pre-budget documents. It also called for more debate and wider distribution of information through radio in countries where literacy rates are low.
According to the Washington-based International Budget Partnership, most countries fall short in providing readily available information on budgets and spending programs.
Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, says access to budget documents is a major challenge. The IBP says in many countries the public is simply shut out from the budget formation process.
"The report with you right now gives a very sad story. About 80 per cent of the governments in 85 countries of the world are not transparent about their budget and financial processes," said Mangahas. "The battle that we have really as journalists and development advocates is that that means misuse, abuse, and corruption of public funds continue in small and large measures in many countries."
The International Budget Partnership works with civil organizations in developing countries to analyze, monitor and influence the government budget process. The organization says the aim is to ensure budgets respond to the needs of the poor as well as provide more transparency and accountability.
At the top of the Open Budget Index were the United Kingdom, South Africa, France, New Zealand and United States in providing extensive information in the budget process.
Among the lowest ranking were Angola, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In South East Asia, Vietnam and Cambodia received low rankings, placing among the group of countries that provide little or no information on national budgets.
"The Royal Government of Cambodia provides scant information to the public in terms of central government budget and financial activity during the fiscal year," said Kim Song Chea, of the non-government organization, Forum on Cambodia.
Song Chea says Cambodia faces a number of challenges. He says the country lacks funds to boost the auditing process and has few means to press the government to enact freedom of information laws.
Song Chea says foreign donors, key contributors to Cambodia's development budget, need to press the government on issues of accountability.
According to the report, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand also fell short in transparency and information on national budgets. Only Indonesia showed signs of progress towards reform over recent years.
Khairiah Makhtaruddin, a researcher with the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute in Kuala Lumpur, says the Malaysian government offers little chance for public participation in the budget process.
She says the government should improve the parliamentary review processes to raise levels of transparency.
Only Indonesia ranked better than 50 per cent in providing "significant information" to the public in its budget documents, with an improvement following reforms by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance at the national level.
The IBP called on governments to take urgent action to improve budget transparency and accountability, calling on international donors to add their weight along with civil society to publicize and demand explanations from governments to provide more information on spending programs.
The Washington-based organization recommended governments provide more timely information on the Internet and improve public accessibility to pre-budget documents. It also called for more debate and wider distribution of information through radio in countries where literacy rates are low.
12 comments:
How come there is very little or no information on Cambodia's national budget? It's very easy to find out. Seriously it is. All one has to do to determine the figures is by simply using this formula:
(A) = International aid money donated to Cambodia
(B) = Total value of cash pocketed by Hun Sen, the CPP, and Hun Sen's cronies
(C) = Cambodia's national budget
(A) - (B) = (C)
2:51 AM. you're funny...very funny if I may add. Thanks.
hehehe... our government is not alone at least in term of budget transparency. We learn a lot from our neighbors to implement in our governing system and then our government can do it better and more open. Everyone know than, if they ever dealt with government officers.
yeah 7:39 AM...go suck someone or something's else blood, ok you leech?
Here we go again. This is nothing more than Washington's dirty tactic to hide their own corruption that caused financial hell worldwide by blaming the world for lack of this and that. Unfortunately, however, they are not fooling anyone.
Cambodia happens to be one of the top transparent countries on the planet. We always released information to the public, except for classified stuffs of course. We don't hide anything. As a matter of fact, the government recently released information about how much they are spending on rural development, infrastructure, tourism, education, ... , defense and everyone knows it except for Pouk Ah Scam Rainxy and Potato diggers because they have serious memory issues.
Every day you read mockeries of KI team, smearing the good efforts of the current Cambodian Government. I do not see how these comments can be constructive criticism for the Hun Sen government. I only see "If Sam Rainsy is not in charge, I'll tear down every body else who is", so Sam Rainsy can appear as being the good guy as he professes to be. My suggestions are Cambodia has had some stability now (and I say that in the context of our history in the last 700 years that what we have done is tearing each other apart), why can the opposition be a compliment to the ruling party. "If I am not in charge, I won't let you either". That is an ingrained Khmer instinct. I want to say also besides that we have stability, we also have some measures of development. During off election season, why can't Sam Rainsy work with the existing governement to better our nation with his constructive criticism/efforts. I only see mud slingging back and forth, while Sam Rainsy himself has so much mud in his backyard. There is a saying here "You cannot build yourself up by tearing other people down. The only person who understands the consequence of which more than anyone else is His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk. His overriding policy goal has always been to have stability first and foremost, democray and development would come later. As Rodney King simply put it "Why can't we all get along?" atleast for the sake of stability and some measure of development. I honestly think that is all we can afford, no matter who's in charge" I don't think Sam Rainsy will fare any better by just looking at how he operates his party. We all tend to underestimate the influence of the media such as KI, who's in some aspects incite more division and hatred more than an opposition politicial party could. There is nothing wrong with critism in a democracy, but give ones that are contructive and contributive to stability and development.
thanks for journalists and these development advocate and especially thanks for them to contribute to press the Cambodia government for national budget transparency and accountability.
Obviously shown if khmers ever look back before military standoff with thailand. Cambodia national budget has never been transparent and accountable in term that the allocated money was spent in the manner of massive corruption. soldier’s clothes, weaponary everything was in a mess and great carelessness. the current government must realize, however it just ignores as it is the major mechanism to survive its struggling power.
yeah...CPP leech @7:55 AM should eat shit and die! and the same goes to the leech at 8:32 AM too!
CPP leech gibberish talk @ 8:32AM...Eat shit and die you leech!
Another reader
Fancy talks from some CPP-supporting journalists above, which are desperately needed to cover a corroded steel with fake gold. However, past evidence has shown that the CPP doesn't even tolerate constructive criticism, and we have lost the number of body counts.
Budget transparency? How can Cambodian officials disclose that most of the income from Custom & Excise goes straight to the CPP's coffer? And, who is in charge of that department? The treasurer of the CPP. Talking about the conflict of interest!
It is always nice to have a civilised discussion about this, but as many ordinary Cambodians would say fancy talks get you nowhere in Cambodia, which is contrary to our customary courtesy in the old days. One Cambodian official explained to me as an example: "we posted a polite request in the shared toilet for our staff to keep it clean, but it was no use. So, we posted a different note that says "Dogs Do Not Clean Up After Use", and it works!" The same tactic may work for the CPP crooks, as it is doubtful that they are a civilised human-being.
Thank God for that. Thing used to be much worse when Ah Scam Rainxy was finance minister. 90% of the revenue went directly into his swiss account every year reserved for funding his party later on.
yeah you CPP leech liar at 2:11 PM should eat shit and die, you hear?
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