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Governance: Open public finance data

To what extent do relevant laws, regulations, policies, and guidance provide a basis for collecting and publishing data on public finances? (E.g., government budgets, government spending, debt, and borrowing.)

Definitions and Identification

Most countries have a legal framework to guide public financial management (PFM); this framework will set how income, debt, budget, spending, and other public finance information, such as budgetary performance indicators or measurements, should be collected, managed, and reported.

This indicator asks whether your country's framework explicitly addresses the collection and publication of structured data, and whether or not it supports provision of structured data from summary reports and/or detailed transactions.**

Summary reports, also called accounting reports, provide an overview of the amounts budgeted or spent against a number of categories. They are often presented as relatively short tables or cross-tabulations. Summary reports generally do not contain details of individual line items, specific projects, or items of expenditure covered by a budget category.

Rules or guidance that support the provision of structured summary data may, for example, set out a requirement to use a particular reporting system, or establish digital templates for reporting.

Transactional data provides line-by-line information on budget allocations or spending, either at the level of granular categories (e.g., disaggregated to the level of staff spending in a particular school), or individual transactions (e.g., the payment to a particular building contractor for work on the school).

Rules of guidance that support the provision of structured transaction data may, for example, require collection and publication of detailed spend records, or may provide the basis for budget transparency at a disaggregated level. When transactional data is provided, it may be necessary for governments to make provisions to redact certain private information, such as details of payments to individuals.

Note: This indicator is not intended to assess the quality of public financial management governance, only whether governance frameworks for public financial management support the provision of structured data.

This question should be explored alongside public finance availability questions, as in some cases, the information surrounding available data may provide evidence concerning the rules or guidance under which data is produced and provided.

Starting points

  • Sources:
  • Search:
    • Public finance open data + [country]
  • Consult:
    • Public spending experts in the country

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

  • Does the framework require that both summary reports and more granular transaction-level reports be provided as structured data?
  • What does the framework cover? For example, does it cover the executive budget proposal, approved or enacted budget, in-year reports, and year-end reports?
  • Does the framework seek to ensure data quality? For example, by requiring this information to be verified in some way and empowering an agency or official to ensure accurate and timely data?
  • What kinds of provisions does the framework include for publishing the information as open data? For regularly updating the data?
  • What agencies does this framework cover? Does it cover the entire general government or public sector, or only part?

National and sub-national considerations

In many cases, even where the national government sets the rules or guidance for public financial management, there will be different rules for national and sub-national government.

You should carry out your assessment with respect to the rules or guidance from, and relating to, national government budget and spending, but use the question on the coverage of rules and guidance to indicate whether this is representative of practice across the whole public sector or not.

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

  • Are there laws, policies, or regulations requiring collection or publication of this information in any form?

    • No.
    • They are being drafted, or are not yet implemented.
      Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.
    • They exist and are operational.
      Supporting questions: Please provide brief details.

  • Do relevant laws, policies, regulations, or guidance discuss the publication of open data?

    • There is no mention of data or the publication of data in relevant laws, policies, or guidance.
    • Requirements to publish data are set out in non-binding policy or guidance.
      Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.
    • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.
      Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.
    • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.
      Supporting questions: Please provide a URL to the most relevant legislation, policy, or guidance.

Elements

  • Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

  • Summary reports must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • Expenditure information at the most disaggregated level of the economic classification must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes) In some countries this is called "transactional" data. Answer 'Yes' if there are only limited exceptions (e.g., for privacy reasons); answer 'Partially' if there are significant exceptions (e.g., a high threshold such that many lower value expenditures are not collected/published).

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The rules/guidance require executive budget proposal information to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Partially' if expenditures are covered, but not income, debt, or performance information.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The rules/guidance require the approved or enacted budget to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The rules/guidance require in-year reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The rules/guidance require year-end reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • Provisions for data quality:

  • The rules/guidance empower an agency or official to ensure the accurate and timely collection and publication of required data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes) There are many different kinds of verification processes. In some cases, data is required from multiple parties engaged in an activity and that data is then cross-verified. In others, a dedicated agency or official has the authority to conduct audits, engaging with other agencies or external parties to verify information received.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please briefly explain the verification process used, and which parts of collected data the framework requires to be verified and which parts it does not.

    If Yes: Please briefly explain the verification process used.

  • Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

  • The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

  • The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue and explain your 'Partially' response.

    If Yes: Please indicate which section of the framework refers to this issue.

Extent

  • How comprehensive is the coverage of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?

    • They only apply in a narrow set of situations.
      Supporting questions: When do these rules/guidance apply?
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.
      Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are similar rules/guidance that apply to many other agencies and/or local government units.
      Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?
    • The laws, regulations, policies or guidance assessed, or equivalent rules/guidance, apply across the whole public sector including national, sub-national, and local government.
      Supporting questions: Are there any notable exceptions? (E.g., defence sector.)

  • How comprehensive is the coverage of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?

    • They only apply in a narrow set of situations.
      Supporting questions: When do these rules/guidance apply?
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.
      Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are similar rules/guidance that apply to many other agencies and/or local government units.
      Supporting questions: To which agency or agencies do these rules/guidance apply?
    • The laws, regulations, policies or guidance assessed, or equivalent rules/guidance, apply across the whole public sector, including national, sub-national, and local government state owned enterprises or corporations, extrabudgetary funds (such as trust funds or some emergency funds), etc.
      Supporting questions: Are there any notable exceptions? (E.g., defence sector.)

Principles of fiscal transparency requiring governments to publish information on planned and executed budgets and spending are well established: evidenced in the IMF's Fiscal Transparency Guide (2007), OECD Budget Transparency Toolkit (2017), IMF Fiscal Transparency Handbook (2018) and the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) diagnostics. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the GIFT High-Level Principles on Fiscal Transparency(UNGA Resolution 67/218).

Recent guides on fiscal transparency have incorporated a recognition of the importance of providing structured and open data, drawing in particular on the G20 Anti-Corruption Open Data Principles. The long-established Open Budget Survey incorporates questions on the legal framework for publication of budget and spending information and questions on the availability of machine-readable data, but does not assess whether laws, rules, and guidance explicitly support the production of structured data on budgets and spending.