Publication of Provincial Open Budget Index POBI 2020: There is still room for improvement

The Provincial Budget Disclosure Index (POBI) survey is an annual survey of the budget disclosure level of 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam. The survey was conducted independently by two member organizations of the Budget Transparency Alliance (BTAP), the Center for Development and Integration (CDI) and the Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) since 2017. 2020 is the 4th year POBI has been implemented and announced. 

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Director of the Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR), said: “The report is of great significance in creating a system of practice for all levels of government in budget management in Vietnam, gradually moving towards international practices in public spending, based on the four pillars of modern budget management: transparency, accountability, predictability, and citizens’ participation. The results of the assessment, scoring and ranking of provinces according to the general index as well as the component index of the report are necessary and useful data for readers to be able to identify the general picture of the whole country of state agencies in the implementation of budgetary stages.”

The results of the POBI 2020 survey showed that the level of publicity of local budget information continued to improve, but there were signs of slowing down.

The average score of provincial budget disclosure in 2020 reached 69.09 points out of 100 points, an increase of 3.54 points compared to the 2019 results. In 2020, 27 provinces have FULLY publicized documents and information in terms of state budget, an increase of 3 provinces compared to 2019. The number of provinces that were RELATIVELY fully disclosed was 29 provinces, an increase of 2 provinces compared to 2019. The number of provinces that were INCOMPLETE and LESS OPEN were 5 and 2 provinces, respectively, a decrease of 4 and 1 province compared to 2019.

In the POBI 2020 budget publicity ranking, Vinh Long ranked first with 93.68 points. Da Nang ranked second with 92.26 points and Ba Ria-Vung Tau ranked third with 90.45 points. The two provinces with LESS publicity in the POBI 2020 ranking results were Binh Phuoc (3.84 points) and Dak Lak (23.41 points). Lang Son province in 2019 was the penultimate in the ranking, in 2020 has risen to 16th with 82.3 points, belonging to the group of provinces with FULL information publicly.

Associate professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, representative of the Research team commented: “The POBI scores of the provinces in the first year we implemented were generally very low, the national average was only 30 points (in 2017). This means that almost no province was interested in complying with budget transparency in the 2015 Budget Law. However, over the next year, there was a strong improvement as the provinces realize where they stand. In the rankings, the average POBI score of the whole country skyrocketed to 50 (in 2018), and continued to increase to 65 points in 2019. It show that the provinces were conscious of improving budget transparency in accordance with the Budget Law as well as the general development of society. However, by 2020, which is the fourth year of ranking, we see the improvement in POBI score showing signs of slowing down. The positive point is that many provinces that were previously ranked very low and did not pay attention to publicizing budget transparency in 2020 have significantly improved. In addition, the group with high scores, the group of provinces with a tradition of budget transparency and compliance with the Budget Law, still maintained a stable performance.”

Analyzing the survey results of the provincial budget transparency index in 2020, Assoc. Dr. Vu Sy Cuong, Public Finance Specialist, Head of the Research Team, said that 2020 recorded many good practices in budget disclosure in 63 provinces and cities. The State Budget Report for Citizens is the document with the most improvement in availability. Although this is not a mandatory document to be disclosed under the 2015 State Budget Law, 22 provinces have made this document public in 2020, an increase of 8 provinces compared to 2019. POBI 2020 grading results showed great progress in convenience when 100% of provinces had a public budget directory and most documents were published in Word/Excel or PDF format, which is easy to use and convert.

2020 was also the first year of the survey on the continuity of publicly available documents. The survey results showed that 49 provinces, accounting for 77.78% of the total, have published their provincial budget estimates and submitted them to the Provincial People’s Council for three consecutive years, 52 provinces (82.54%) have announced their budget estimates to the provincial People’s Council to be approved continuously for three years and 51 provinces (80.95%) publish the provincial budget finalization report that has been approved by the provincial People’s Council continuously for three years.

However, the results of POBI 2020 also showed that provinces still need to work to continue to improve the level of budget transparency and create opportunities for citizens’ participation.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong, Senior Manager of Governance Program, Oxfam Vietnam, shared: “POBI has become a tool to encourage provinces and cities to always improve themselves in terms of budget transparency, increase validity from the citizen, as well as increase the efficiency of budget management. In addition, POBI and MOBI also provide useful, scientific and timely information so that the Ministry of Finance and the Government have policies to adjust the guidance and transparent implementation of the budget in the provinces to ensure that Vietnam becomes more open and transparent, and towards achieve international standards on budget disclosure and transparency. This is also a condition for Vietnam to participate in integration, especially in the international financial market.”

Mr. Nguyen Quang Thuong, Deputy Director of the Center for Development and Integration of CDI, the coordinating body of the BTAP Budget Transparency Alliance, said: “After four years of implementing POBI, we see great efforts of the various stakeholders including People’s Committee and Departments of Finance in implementing budget transparency in accordance with the 2015 Budget Law and international good practices on budget transparency. We are confident that POBI will continue to be a useful tool to help increase public and development partners’ trust in local budget management through transparency, accountability and participation on budget. We hope that in the coming time, POBI will be used as one of the indicators of local socio-economic development and used as one of the criteria for budget allocation for different local projects in the following years.”

The POBI 2020 survey was conducted with the support of Oxfam Vietnam and the KAS Institute in Vietnam.

Surveys are carried out every year. The survey results are a tool to help localities and central agencies refer to and measure the level of publicity and transparency in state budget management in the provinces. POBI is also a tool to support Vietnam to implement better administrative and fiscal reforms, contributing to the achievement of SDG 16 Sustainable Development Goals on transparency, accountability with the participation of the people.

CDI Vietnam.