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Publication of the Ministry Open Budget Index (MOBI) 2021 – Improved compared to MOBI 2020

26/06/2023

This morning, in Hanoi, the Center for Development and Integration (CDI) – a member of the Budget Transparency Alliance (BTAP), held an event to announce the Ministry Open Budget Index (MOBI) 2021. Mr. Thanh commented: with the POBI Provincial Budget Publicity Index, we have recorded a clear improvement year by year. However, with MOBI, this index could be higher during the last four years of conducting the survey. It shows that central agencies using state budgets have yet to comply with the law on publicity and transparency, and the level of budget disclosure of ministries and central agencies has improved compared to MOBI 2020.

Although the MOBI 2021 survey results show that the level of budget publicity of ministries and central agencies has improved compared to MOBI 2020. However, there are still many units that still need to be publicized or fully publicized. This result showed that these units still need to meet the requirements under the provisions of the 2015 State Budget Law, Circular 61/2017/TT-BTC, and Circular 90/2018/TT-BTC. The average score of MOBI 2021 is 30.9 points, an increase of 9.26 points compared to MOBI 2020. In the MOBI 2020 ranking, the Ministry of Finance is still the agency with the highest ranking, with 76.16 points converted, and is the only unit with transparency at the FULL level. Second is the Vietnam Television Agency with 72.09 points, and third place is the State Bank of Vietnam with 59.09 points. Mr. Dung said: “Why is the number of documents on the budget estimated more than the final settlement? Is it because the estimate is only a forecast, and the final settlement reflects the quality of budget use by each agency, so agencies are still avoiding it?”

Mr. Nguyen Quang Thuong opened the ceremony, “Hopefully, in next year’s MOBI report, there will be a strong improvement; budget-using units will increase publicity and transparency and comply with the Budget Law.”

Availability: The survey results show that ministries and central agencies still need to fully publicize budget documents per the law. There are 30 agencies and organizations out of 44 in the MOBI 2021 survey period that have published at least one budget document (accounting for 68.2%), an increase of three units compared to the 2020 survey period. However, 14 ministries and central agencies still need to publicize any documents at the time of the survey (equivalent to 31.8%).

“Given the current situation, we have to go back to find out more specific causes, why the level of publicity is so low, and what factors can be improved to come up with a suitable solution,” – Mr. Tan stated. In terms of timeliness: Generally, there is a slight but insignificant improvement. Ministries and central agencies have yet to disclose budget documents as prescribed promptly. Of 23 units that have published documents on the 2022 budget estimate, only seven have published on time as prescribed, within 15 days from December 31, 2020. For documents on the 2020 Budget Finalization, 12 out of 20 units have disclosed information on time as prescribed. The remaining documents, including the report on implementing the unit budget for the first quarter, six months, nine months, and the whole year of 2021, were only disclosed on time by 6, 7, and 7 units, respectively. None of the units publicly reported on implementing the full-year 2021 budget.

Regarding completeness: The results of the MOBI 2021 survey show that the published budget documents still need to have all the content specified in Circular 90/2018/TT-BTC, the explanatory report still needs to be included, or the content of the tables needs to be completed. Mrs. Huong commented: “The first time MOBI was implemented in 2018 recorded that almost no agency published relatively complete budget documents. Four years on, we have seen an improvement in the number of agencies disclosing their budgets, but the results are low and far from the POBI score. This situation shows that the provincial government seems to be doing better than the central level in publicizing the budget.” Among the 30 units that have made public at least one of the six budget documents, the Ministry of Finance, the Vietnam Television Agency, and the State Bank of Vietnam are leaders in the completeness of budget documents. The Ministry of Finance ranked first with 53.49 points in terms of completeness.

Mr. Vu Sy Cuong announced the results of the Ministry and Central Agency Open Budget Index (MOBI) 2021 “The publicity of the state budget of the ministries and branches in the past few years have not improved, especially compared to the previous years. With the disclosure of local budgets, the central budget has not shown the leading role in budget transparency.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong commented, “After four years of implementation, the MOBI index helps agencies see the progress in publicizing their agency’s budget year by year and simultaneously shows the comparison between different agencies in Vietnam.”

Mr. Bui Dang Dung replied, “The Government needs to push the ministries and central agencies to publicize the budget by the law and issue sanctions to handle the units that do not make the state budget public. The Government also needs to apply measures to assess the law’s implementation on budget disclosure and report to the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee, and the State President by the law.”

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tan spoke in the discussion, “We must review the legal provisions on publicity and transparency to propose the National Assembly for improvement.”

Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh stated, “The results of MOBI 2021 have shown that central agencies did not publicize any documents according to regulations. Even if the agencies have published their documents, it is still sketchy and incomplete. MOBI 2021’s average score of 30.9 is a disappointment. Compared to local budget publicity, central agencies are far behind.”

Mobi Final Formex — Ministry and Central Agency Open Budget Index (MOBI) 2021.

The MOBI survey was conducted independently by two member organizations of the Budget Transparency Alliance (BTAP), the Center for Development and Integration (CDI), and the Vietnam Center for Economic and Strategic Studies (VESS). MOBI 2021 assesses the level of budget transparency of 44 ministries and central agencies, of which 38 ministries and central agencies are estimating the state budget supports units and six central agencies and organizations.

CDI Vietnam.