Palestine in the Open Budget Survey
The Open Budget Survey asserts the importance of the Legislative Council as the primary oversight body that represents the Palestinian people
Palestine ranks low in the Open Budget Survey
For the ninth year, the International Budget Partnership released on 29 May 2024 the Open Budget Survey covering 125 states around the world, including Palestine for the first time, in cooperation with the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity-AMAN.
The Open Budget Survey is the only independent and comparative survey in the world on the transparency of, oversight over, and participation in the preparation of the general budgets. It aims at helping the local civil society to evaluate their governments and consult with them on reporting on public funds and means of using them. The assessment in Palestine examined the published documents, events, activities and developments as of 31 December 2022, and provided results and recommendations amid the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and the on-going genocidal war in Gaza.
Under transparency, Palestine received eight out of 100. The transparency section in the Open Budget Survey measures public access to information on how the central government increases and spends the public resources. It assesses the online availability of eight key budget documents, their timeliness and inclusion. Those documents are the budget statement, Executive proposed budget (pre-budget statement), approved budget, citizen’s budget, annual (in-year) reports, mid-year review, year-end report, and audit report.
In this regard, the Survey gave some priority recommendations to improve budget transparency in Palestine. Those include to publish the budget statement online in a timely manner, at least one month prior to submitting the proposed budget and to continue the timely publishing of the approved budget and citizen’s budget online (the citizen’s budget is a simple version of the budget that the ordinary citizens can access and comprehend). Moreover, produce and publish the Executive proposed budget and the mid-year review in a timely manner, incorporate the detailed actual expenditures in the year-end report, compare between planned and actual non-financial results and compare between original and actual macroeconomic projections. (Annual reports constitute a perfect opportunity to assess whether the countries spend less than they should or over spend on social programmes and other sectors that concern the public). Furthermore, seek to improve inclusive reporting during the year, through presenting actual expenditures according to programs and comparing actual expenditures and revenues to date with original estimates for the same period, or the same period of the previous year, to improve the inclusivity of the audit report, through including an executive summary. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) must also publish a report on the steps taken to address the results of the audit report.
Under public participation, Palestine received zero out of 100. The Open Budget Survey assesses (public participation) through the official meaningful opportunities available to the public to engage in the different stages of the budget process. It examines the practices of the Executive body of the central government, the legislature and the supreme audit institutions and their compliance with the principles of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and the Principles of Public Participation in Fiscal Policy. Public participation is totally absent because the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has been frozen since 2006, because of the political division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The President issued a decision to dissolve PLC in December 2018, which means that the budgets have not been presented to PLC.
The Survey recommended that priority in Palestine be given to increasing public participation in the budget process, as MOF must put in place experimental mechanisms to engage the public during developing the budget and the monitoring its implementation. It must actively engage with vulnerable and underrepresented communities either directly or through the civil society organizations (CSOs) that represent them. The Survey also recommended holding elections and activating PLC to restore the normal checks and balances over the budget process. Moreover, when there is a legislative council, priority shall be given to the following measures to improve opportunities for public participation and enable individuals from the public or CSOs to have a say through hearing sessions on the proposed budget before its adoption, and similarly regarding the audit report. The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) in Palestine must improve public participation in auditing the budget process, through putting in place official mechanisms for the public to help them develop their own audit program and participate in the relevant audit investigations.
Under oversight over the budget, Palestine received a compound grade, 17 out of 100. The Open Budget Survey addresses the role of the legislature and supreme audit institutions in the budget process and the level of their oversight. Furthermore, it gathers complementary information about the independent financial institutions. The Survey revealed that the legislative body and the supreme audit institution in Palestine provide poor oversight over the budget process.
This low grade is attributed to the dissolution of PLC, as the primary oversight body. The Survey recommended reinstating PLC to restore the normal checks and balances over the Palestinian budget process. The budget policy must be discussed, and recommendations on the forthcoming budget must be adopted before the Executive develops the proposed budget. The Executive must submit the proposed budget to the Legislature at least two months prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. The Legislature must approve the budget before the beginning of the fiscal year. The legislative committees must examine the proposed budget of the Executive and oversee budget implementation during the year. They must oversee that the reports, and their analyses and results, are published online. The Legislature must be consulted before the Executive shifts finances among administrative units (items) specified in the approved budget during the budget year, or upon making any unanticipated expenditure, or reducing expenditures because of a deficit in revenues. Furthermore, the Legislature must scrutinize the audit report and publish it with its results online.
The Survey recommended several measures that enhance autonomy and improve oversight of SAACB. Appointing SAACB chair requires the approval of the legislature or the judiciary, and an independent body must review their audits.
The results of this Survey assert the recommendations of the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency, which demanded that the Palestinian governments enhance transparency and participation in budget development and implementation. AMAN, the secretariat of the Civil Society Team, believes that the results of this Survey constitute a challenge and an opportunity for the new Palestinian government that declared its intention to enhance transparency and participation in its operations. This Civil Society Team hopes that the current government takes the results of the Survey seriously, and seeks to improve Palestine’s results in the next survey. It is imperative to restore the legislative life in the Palestinian political system, hold general elections and end the political division to confront challenges that face the Palestinian people.
It is worth noting that the Open Budget Survey is held on a bi-annual basis, and covers 125 countries around the world, with a population of 7.5 billion (95% of the world’s population). The Open Budget Survey is the only independent, comparable and facts-based research tool in the world. It uses internationally accepted standards to assess public access to the information of the budget of the central government, the official opportunities available for public participation in the national budget process, and the role of oversight bodies- such as the legislature and the supreme audit institutions- in the budget process itself.
Report - Open Budget Survey 2023
Ranking Charts - Open Budget Survey 2023
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