Public Finance

The public finance module has been co-developed with the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) to improve comparative understanding of public finance data, and to contribute to overall Global Data Barometer assessments of data for the public good.

Building on the assessment of policy provisions and document availability carried out in the Open Budget Survey, this module looks specifically for evidence that:

  • Frameworks and platforms exist for publication of detailed, disaggregated, and machine-readable data on key aspects of government finance;
  • Data is published in a granular, machine-readable, and timely form.

Additionally, thematic modules on company information, political integrity, and public procurement contain links to the public finance module, looking at questions of interoperability between budgeting, spending, and procurement, and the inclusion of public infrastructure specific projects and unique counterparty identifiers in published data.

To find out more about the development of this thematic module, you can consult our research handbook.

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Public finance indicators

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.)

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
    • They exist and are operational.
  • 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.
    • Requirements to publish data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.
    • Requirements to publish this information as open data are set out in binding policy, regulations, or law.

Elements

Provisions for definitions, kinds, and fields:

  • Summary reports must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Expenditure information at the most disaggregated level of the economic classification must be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The rules/guidance require executive budget proposal information to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The rules/guidance require the approved or enacted budget to be provided as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The rules/guidance require in-year reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The rules/guidance require year-end reports as structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

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)
  • The framework requires a verification process. (No, Partially, Yes)

Provisions for openness, timing, and structure:

  • The rules/guidance require that data is regularly updated. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The rules/guidance support the collection of structured data. (No, Partially, Yes)

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.
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.
    • 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.
    • The laws, regulations, policies or guidance assessed, or equivalent rules/guidance, apply across the whole public sector including national, sub-national, and local government.
  • How comprehensive is the coverage of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance assessed for this question?
    • They only apply in a narrow set of situations.
    • They cover one or more central government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units with weaker rules/guidance.
    • 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.
    • 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.

Availability: Budget and spending data

To what extent is government budget and spending information (budget execution) available as structured open data?

Existence

  • Is this data available online in any form?
    • Data is not available online.
    • Data is available, but not as a result of government action.
    • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

Elements

Kinds of data:

  • There is structured data available on the executive budget proposal in gross terms, including spending on annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data available on amended budgets (when applicable) or amendments of the enacted budget. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data available on the approved or enacted budget in gross terms, including spending on annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data about government budget execution or spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis, including spending in annual and multi-annual investment projects. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data about the government’s extrabudgetary funds spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data about the government’s social security spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There is structured data about public corporations’ spending, in gross terms and on an accrual basis. (No, Partially, Yes)

Data fields and quality:

  • Budget entries have administrative classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Budget entries have economic classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Budget entries have functional classifications to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Budget entries have program classifications according to an internationally agreed standard. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Information about individual financial transactions or expenditures is available at the most disaggregated level of the economic classification level. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Data is disaggregated by cross-cutting programs, or issues such as SDGs, climate action, gender budgeting, etc, (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The data contains common identifiers to connect budget and budget performance data. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The data contains identifiers that can be used to connect budget data with data on major projects (e.g., infrastructure construction) and procurement processes. (No, Partially, Yes)

Data openness, timing, and structure:

  • Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially , Yes)
  • Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)
  • Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)
  • The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes)

Negative scoring:

  • This information is missing required data.
  • The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

Extent

  • How comprehensive is the data assessed?
    • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies, but there are many agencies or local government units without data available.
    • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies and there is similar data available for most other parts of national government.
    • The data assessed covers one or more national government agencies,, and there is similar data available for the majority of the public sector (including sub-national government, state-owned enterprises or corporations, and extrabudgetary funds).
    • The data assessed covers the majority of the public sector (including sub-national government, state-owned enterprises or corporations, and extrabudgetary funds; i.e., a consolidated dataset)