24 January 2013
The 2012 Open Budget Survey results were published yesterday. New Zealand is the highest scoring country of the 100 countries assessed on the Open Budget Index. It rates as the Most Transparent Government in providing key budget documents. This is the fourth survey conducted by the International Budget Partnership since 2006. In the last survey New Zealand was the runner up to South Africa.
The survey is claimed to be the only independent comparison of budget transparency and accountability using experts outside government. It shows that in 77 of the 100 countries assessed – covering half the world’s population – budget transparency is largely absent.
Russia is an interesting addition to the “top ten” in the latest results moving from 21st in 2010.
Australia is not included in the countries assessed.
Open Budget Index 2012 (2010)
New Zealand 1 ( 2 )
South Africa 2 ( 1 )
United Kingdom 3 ( 3 )
Sweden 4 ( 6 )
Norway 5 ( 5 )
France 6 ( 4 )
United States 7 ( 7 )
South Korea 8 ( 10 )
Czech Republic 9 ( 18 )
Russia 10 ( 21 )
http://internationalbudget.org/what-we-do/open-budget-survey/
www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8214202/NZ-government-transparency-tops-world
Integrity Talking Points 